


Drifting, Weightless

by dinosaursmate



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Anal Sex, Angst, Blow Jobs, Cannes, Canon Compliant, Cruise Ships, Exes to Lovers, Fluff, Friends With Benefits, Future Fic, Hand Jobs, M/M, Please don't let it deter you, Recreational Drug Use, Rimming, Smut, barcelona, the Harry/OMC isn't in detail, tuscany
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-10
Updated: 2017-10-10
Packaged: 2018-12-29 16:20:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 41,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12088737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dinosaursmate/pseuds/dinosaursmate
Summary: “We’ve been asked to do a gig,” Niall said slowly. “Harry and Liam are completely up for it, I am too.”“Alright. What’s the catch?” Louis asked with suspicion.“It’s, um…” Niall cleared his throat. “So, Juliana was contacted by this themed cruise company, and they want us to do a four-day One Direction cruise.”The words hung in the air as Louis’ right eyebrow slowly crept up and he fixed Niall with a stare.“Absolutely not.” Louis rolled his eyes. “You’re essentially asking me to go on a working holiday with my ex. Stranded on a boat in the ocean for four days.”“Cruise ships are huge! You don’t have to see him in your down time.”---Harry and Louis are exes with benefits until they're not, and the Mediterranean Sea might just be the perfect place to work through some unresolved issues.





	Drifting, Weightless

**Author's Note:**

> [Molly](http://becomeawendybird.tumblr.com/) betad, and thank you for The Writing Dead group chat who held my hand throughout this! 
> 
> WARNING for some cheating themes. If you're especially sensitive to that stuff, please come and chat to me. It's complicated, but I left it out the tags for a reason. It makes sense when you read it, but please proceed with caution. It's not a huge theme, I promise.
> 
> All partners past and present in this fic are original characters and not based off any real person. Niall and Liam are both in relationships with female characters.

**July**

Louis cried out, face smushed into the pillow. He was close, really close. It hurt a little bit, the way Harry was relentlessly pounding into him with such force, but it was so,  _ so  _ good.

They never really spoke during sex unless it was necessary. Well, they didn’t tend to speak at all unless it was necessary, which it seldom was. They had once been bandmates and partners, but nowadays their relationship was reduced to the occasional booty call, Louis often being the one to summon Harry. 

Harry came, digging his fingertips painfully into Louis’ sweat-slick hips before pulling out and flipping Louis onto his back. He grabbed Louis’ cock and tugged for a matter of seconds before Louis started to come, arching his back and shouting profanities. Harry sucked Louis’ come from his hand before leaning down to lick the rest from his stomach. Louis stifled a whimper as Harry indulgently lapped at his skin.

“Fuck,” Harry said with a sigh. “That was great.”

He pulled off the condom, tied a knot in it and threw it into Louis’ bin before promptly starting to pick his clothes up from the floor and getting dressed.

“In a hurry?” Louis asked.

“Yeah, sorry. I need to head off.”

“Alright.” They sometimes had a cheeky cuddle after sex, which was something that nobody else needed to know and certainly not something they ever discussed between them. Louis wasn’t disappointed. He  _ wasn’t. _

“Actually, I need to tell you something.” Harry cleared his throat, pulling his socks on with his back to Louis. He glanced over his shoulder. “This is probably gonna be the last time I come over.”

Louis’ heart sunk. “Oh?”

Harry stood and turned to face him. “I’ve been seeing this guy, and I think it’s time to take it to the next level. You know, get serious. Be exclusive.”

“Oh. Well. Okay.” Louis painted on a smile that he hoped was encouraging. “I’m sorry to hear that, but I’m happy for you.”

Harry smiled tentatively. “Thanks, Lou.”

-

**September**

Hooking up with strangers in bars and clubs had never really been Louis’ thing. It was fine, it did the job, but he supposed he’d been spoilt by over a decade of fucking someone who knew every part of his body intimately. 

But Harry was in a relationship with Christian, now. It wasn’t that Louis begrudged him happiness exactly, but it wasn’t easy to see his ex move on. Especially when Harry was leaving Louis behind, sexually unsatisfied. It wasn’t painful, though. Okay, maybe it was a little bit painful. 

“Have you not met him yet?” Niall asked. “Aw, Christian’s great.”

Christian was tall, and blonde, and sporty, and broad-shouldered. He’d seen pictures of him on Harry’s Facebook - not that Louis had been looking - and he was very handsome. 

“No, I haven’t,” Louis said. “Why would I have met him? He’s my ex’s new boyfriend.”

Niall was chewing on his bottom lip and dragging his finger through the condensation on his beer glass. Louis had known Niall for long enough to know he had something on his mind, and Louis felt dread tickling in his gut. He had a horrible feeling Niall had some bad news for him.

Maybe Harry and Christian got married. Maybe they were moving to Taiwan. 

“I need to ask you something.”

They were alone in the beer garden. Autumn was setting in and there was a chill in the air, so everybody was inside, the hum of the lunchtime crowd flowing out from inside the pub and making Louis feel like they weren’t as alone as they actually were.

“Alright, out with it.” Louis sighed.

“We’ve been asked to do a gig,” Niall said slowly. “Harry and Liam are completely up for it, I am too.”

“Alright. What’s the catch?” Louis asked with suspicion.

“It’s, um…” Niall cleared his throat. “So, Juliana was contacted by this themed cruise company, and they want us to do a four-day One Direction cruise.”

The words hung in the air as Louis’ right eyebrow slowly crept up and he fixed Niall with a stare.

“Are you joking?”

“It’ll be so much fun, Tommo! Us four lads together again for four nights. Reconnecting with the fans!”

“Absolutely not.” Louis rolled his eyes.

“Louis,” Niall said, voice low. “The pay is incredible. I’ll email you over the details. Please just consider it. I’m gonna be honest, I need the money.”

Louis sighed, rubbing his forehead. “You’re essentially asking me to go on a working holiday with my ex. Stranded on a boat in the ocean for four days.”

“Cruise ships are huge! You don’t have to see him in your down time.”

Louis felt panic rising inside of him. He had been backed into a corner, here. Everybody else had signed on and he would be the bad guy if he said no. The fans would love it, no question about it. It did sound like it would be fun if it wasn’t for the whole Harry thing. 

“When is it?”

“Tentative dates are set for end of next October.”

Louis chewed on his thumbnail. “He’ll want to take Christian. I don’t think I could handle it.”

Louis must have looked pretty pathetic, because Niall stood to his feet, leaning down to hug him from behind. “Look, they really want us to do this. We’ve got plenty of bargaining power, yeah? We can make this as easy for you as possible.”

Louis sniffed. “I suppose.”

“Hey!” Niall said brightly as he returned to his own seat. “How about a no spouses clause? It’s not like Tootsie will wanna come.”

“Liam’s gonna punch you if you keep calling Tina ‘Tootsie’.”

“Well, I no longer say it to their faces, do I?” 

Louis sighed. “Shouldn’t you consult Cati before you add a no spouses clause?”

“Cati will understand if it’s what gets you to agree.” Niall pouted. “Please?”

Louis took a huge swig of his beer. The money wouldn’t hurt, and it  _ did _ sound like fun. When was the last time he’d thrown caution to the wind, anyway?

“Look, fine. I’ll do it. But  _ only _ with the no spouses clause.”

-

**December**

All 3,500 places on the cruise sold out in four minutes. Louis was flabbergasted at the amount of fans that had so much disposable income but it was very nice to know they were still popular as a band. 

The four of them had their first official meeting about the cruise and, apart from a quick hello, Harry barely acknowledged Louis. Louis quickly had his suspicions to why.

“About this no spouse thing…” Harry said, putting his hand in the air.

“What about it?” Juliana asked without looking up. 

Juliana was their manager and she had a very close working relationship with Niall. Once upon a time, Louis had been the spokesperson on behalf of all the boys but nowadays it was Niall. He was probably the most levelheaded and the most likely to be objective on behalf of all four of them. Louis definitely wasn’t that person anymore.

“Is it negotiable?” Harry asked, and irritation flared up inside of Louis. “Why is that a thing, anyway?”

Oh. So he didn’t know it was Louis’ demand.

“That was me,” Niall said immediately. “I don’t think it’s fair. This isn’t a holiday for us, it’s work. We’ll be there to focus on the fans, it’s not about our families.”

Harry looked so disappointed, and Louis wanted to punch his face. 

“Oh. Okay.” Harry pouted. “I would’ve thought it’d be right up Cati’s street.”

“She’d love to come, but that’s not the point,” Niall said before grinning. “It sold out before she could buy her ticket!”

“Tina was fine with it,” Liam piped up.

Niall smirked at Louis.

-

**April**

Louis had been seeing someone for a few weeks and, for the first time, he kind of regretted the no spouse clause for the cruise. What if he himself was in a relationship by then? He and Harry could both have brought their partners along. That would’ve been interesting.

Anyway, Louis personally wouldn’t want to inflict that kind of thing on a partner. He didn’t think Michael would enjoy four days of hysteria. Harry obviously thought Christian would, but that was none of Louis’ business, anyway.

Even when Louis had demanded the no spouses clause, it had occurred to him that Harry’s two-month long relationship might not have even survived the thirteen months between then and the cruise itself. It was now five months until the cruise, and Harry and Christian were still going strong. 

“Tootsie made him cut his hair,” Niall whispered as Louis’ housekeeper made her way to answer the door. “Don’t pull a face when you see it.”

“You know, I thought you agreed to the ‘no spouse’ thing for my benefit.” Louis cocked an eyebrow. “But you only fought for it so you didn’t have to spend 4 days on a boat with Tina.”

“You caught me!” Niall laughed. “God, imagine. Four days with Tootsie.”

“She’s not that bad, Niall,” Louis said in a hushed tone. “She makes Liam happy.”

The living room door opened and a beaming Liam walked in. Louis inhaled sharply, quickly schooling his expression. Liam had shaved his head, sporting a hairdo he’d not had for about a decade. It may have suited him then, but Louis wasn’t so sure about now.

“Hi, lads. Harry not here yet?”

It was an unseasonably warm weekend, so Louis had invited all the boys round for a barbecue. Or, rather, Niall had invited Liam and Harry on his behalf. Still, he thought that they could do with a bit of band bonding. He and Harry would have to learn how to be in each other’s company again at some point. 

He also had to meet Christian at some point. Might as well be today.

-

The five men all stood around the barbecue, Louis moving burgers around just for something to do.  _ Christian was fine, _ he mused. Pleasant, even. He and Harry seemed to be holding back on the PDA which, although Louis was glad about, he was mortified to think it was probably for his benefit.

Louis knew he should probably ask Christian about himself, but he didn’t want to. Small talk just made things awkward. Instead, he was content to let Niall rabbit on to fill the silence.

“Harry’s stepdad, Robin, used to made the best barbecue chicken wings, God love him,” Niall said. “It was all in the marinade. Do you remember, lads?”

“Yeah,” Louis murmured.

“Yeah,” Liam parroted. 

“My mum has the recipe somewhere,” Harry replied. “I should dig it out.”

“Yeah!” Niall cried in triumph. “Tommo, are ya gonna get your housekeeper to make some sangria?”

“Oh.” Louis glanced at Harry and then back to Niall. “I can do. It’s just that Harry always used to make it. But, if… I mean, I’ve got all the stuff, so…”

Harry smiled, nodding. “Yeah, I’ll definitely make it! It’s tradition, innit?”

“Alright. Liam, watch the barbecue while I show Harry where everything is.”

Louis led Harry inside awkwardly. Harry had been round here loads, but normally just for a quick (or, on occasion, not so quick) shag. He probably wasn’t familiar with much more than the fridge.

“I’ll round everything up for you. My wine cellar is pretty cold so the red wine is basically chilled, but you might wanna use crushed ice instead of cubes anyway? The fridge dispenses cubes but I have a machine over by the bar in the dining room that makes crushed ice.”

Harry was nodding slowly, arms folded. Louis wasn’t sure if he’d been listening at all. He excused himself and jogged down to the wine cellar to fetch a bottle of red. He took the opportunity to sigh heavily, trying to ease his tension somewhat. In all the years since they’d broken up, nothing felt as awkward as this did. They’d broken each other’s hearts, they’d hated each other, but there was nothing that had compared to the resigned acceptance that Louis was feeling today.

As he trudged back up the stairs, he dwelled on that. He’d not thought of it that way. But he guessed that was what it was, resigned acceptance. Accepting that Harry had finally moved on to a steady relationship.

It was just a bit sad, was all.

When he returned to the kitchen, Harry was chopping fruit. Louis placed the red wine down next to him and he turned to smile.

“Thanks. So.” Harry turned his attention back to the fruit and Louis’ heart sank.  _ Don’t say it. _ “How’ve you been?”

There was nothing worse than the ‘ _ How have you been?’ _ question. How could Louis sum up the past six months since they’d stopped sleeping together? Stopped touching each other, stopped making each other feel good? 

Sad, dull. Unsatisfying.

“Yeah, really good,” Louis replied. This was the first time they’d been alone since Harry told him he would be committing to Christian, the first time in  _ years _ they’d been alone together and not had sex as a motive. Louis had forgotten how to be around him without touching him. “Been doing a lot of writing and stuff, so…”

“That’s awesome! I’d love to hear some.”

“Maybe, yeah,” Louis replied. “So… Christian seems nice.”

“Oh, God!” Harry grinned. “I keep forgetting you hadn’t met him before today. He’s really nice, Lou. I think you two would get on really well.”

Louis rolled his eyes, but only because Harry wasn’t looking at him. He felt a sort of satisfaction from Christian being in his house, considering the amount of times he and Harry had probably fucked in every room.

“I’m seeing someone,” Louis blurted out without meaning to.

“Yeah?” Harry beamed. “That’s so good, Lou. What’s his name?”

“Michael.” Louis tried to sound all lovey dovey when he said Michael’s name but he just… they didn’t exactly have that kind of relationship. It wasn’t fairy tale, it was  _ real life. _

“I’m so pleased for you, love. How long have you been seeing him?”

“Oh, it’s early days, yet.” Louis sighed dreamily. “But you know sometimes you just… know?”

Harry snapped his head around to look at Louis. They stared at each other for a few seconds before Harry turned to stare determinedly at the chopped fruit.

“Yeah. I know.”

-

**July**

Tootsie -  _ Tina -  _ invited everybody around to hers and Liam’s place for a summer party. Louis was having a fairly good time, if he was honest. He’d not seen Cati in ages and she was always good fun. Niall was going to propose to her in a week on their anniversary, so Louis got a kick out of chatting to her, listening to her gush about Niall and knowing how happy she and Niall were going to continue to make each other.

Watching Liam get mothered by his wife was always a hoot, and it made any social situation with Tina bearable for both Louis and Niall. It was sweet, though, to be fair. Liam was happy and that was all that mattered.

“Hey!” Harry said from behind Louis. Louis spun around, a smile plastered on his face. “I’ve been looking for you.”

“I’ve been around. Christian not with you?” Louis tried not to sound hopeful.

“Oh, he’s gone to the toilet. He’s doing this cleanse thing where he’s drinking all this water every day. I swear, he’s spending half his life in the loo, these days.”

At least if Christian was here, he would be spending most of his time in the bog. 

“Oh,” Louis replied.

“Did you bring Michael?” Harry asked conspiratorially.

“Oh, he couldn’t make it.”

He couldn’t make it because he hadn’t been invited. Because the relationship had gone nowhere and had fizzled out. Louis couldn’t exactly tell Harry that, could he?

“Oh, that’s a shame.” Harry sighed. “Well, I better go and say hi to Tina.”

-

Niall and Louis shared a spliff round the back of the stables. Tootsie would never catch them here. If she did, there would be hell to pay.

“I think that she should be grateful, though,” Niall mused. “Think how chill these horses will be from the secondhand fumes.”

“That’s one way to-  _ what’s he doing here?” _ Louis was watching Christian walk towards them down the slight slope of Liam’s back garden. 

“Maybe he’s here to get high,” Niall murmured.

“Doubtful.”

“Hi guys. Harry told me to come find you here. Why are you all the way back here?”

“Tootsie doesn’t allow drugs in her home.”

Christian raised his eyebrows. “Tina? Why do you call her Tootsie?”

“She’s got weird feet,” Niall stated.

Christian might have regretted coming to find them. “Um, Harry wanted me to tell you two to get back up there because Liam was asking after you. Said you’re going to be in big trouble.”

Niall sighed very loudly and started to trudge up the slope towards the house. Louis followed close behind and Christian fell into step with him. Great. The last thing Louis needed when he was high was to have to talk to Christian.

“So. Harry tells me you wrote that song that was  _ everywhere _ last year. God, what’s it called?”

“Oh,  _ Leaving? _ Yeah, I co-wrote it.”

“That song is so good, man. And it did really well. Congratulations.”

Louis looked at the ground and gave a little grin. “Cheers, Christian. I  _ am _ proud of it, to be honest.”

“You should be.” They watched Niall skip gaily towards the house and Christian let out a laugh before sighing. “Look, I know things are probably always gonna be awkward between me and you. But… it shouldn’t be. It doesn’t have to be. You know?”

Louis shrugged. “I think I just need to kind of get used to it.”

“I think that’s fair.” Christian gave a tentative smile. “I get it. You guys were together a long time.”

Louis stared out in front of him as Liam’s house came closer and closer. 

“Yeah.”

-

**September**

Louis was woken by Niall sliding into bed next to him. He really needed to tell his housekeeper to stop letting Niall in.

“Morning.” Niall snugged in close and Louis groaned. “Good sleep?”

“Piss off, Niall.” Louis clenched his eyes shut. “What are you doing here? Did Cati kick you out?”

“Cati’s in France for work,” Niall mumbled in Louis’ ear. “I got lonely.”

“You should’ve gone to Liam’s. Got into bed with him and Tootsie.”

“Don’t. You’ll turn my stomach.”

Louis managed to talk Niall into getting out of his bed and they went downstairs for breakfast. They had a mere two weeks until they boarded the cruise and it was the first day of rehearsals for their onboard concert. Louis reckoned he could perform their songs whilst in a coma but they had to go through the motions of rehearsing anyway.

He hoped nobody tried to make them dance. He was in shape, but he wasn’t  _ in shape. _

“Well, it was nice of you to come and pick me up,” Louis said as he got into the passenger seat of Niall’s Range Rover. “You know, the Backstreet Boys get to go to the Caribbean on their cruises. How come we get a European cruise?”

“Because we’re European, you idiot.” Niall rolled his eyes. “What’s wrong with Europe, anyway? Barcelona? Cannes? We’re going to awesome places.”

“I suppose you’re right.”

“And we’ve got a lot of fans coming over from America who might not have come to Europe otherwise. It’s great for them.”

“Okay, you’re right.”

Niall grinned. “I’ll take you to the Bahamas in the new year. Sound good?”

Louis smiled, nodding. “Deal!”

-

“Lads?”

The three of them all turned to look at Liam who was staring at his sandwich, frowning. He looked adorable, as usual, and Louis suddenly realised he really missed being around these guys every day. 

“What’s up, Li?” Louis replied.

“Do you think Zayn would’ve done the cruise if we asked him?”

“Absolutely not,” Harry said.

“Yeah, I don’t think so, mate,” Louis said carefully. “It’s all very much in the past for him, now.”

“I miss those days. The five of us.” Liam sighed, taking a reluctant bite of his sandwich.

“I know,” Niall said. “But now’s pretty great, too! Your last album did really well, and you’ve got a… a wonderful wife. What would you do without Toot- um- Tina, eh?”

Louis felt like such a loser, being the only single one out of the group. To make it worse, he was the oldest. He was just contemplating exactly how many cats to get when he felt Harry sit down next to him.

“Do you want the gherkins from my burger?” he asked.

“Definitely!” Louis nodded. Harry lifted the bun from the top of his burger and held it out to Louis. “Should I just...?”

“Not as if I care about your fingers on my food.” Harry grinned. “I think we’re past that.”

“I suppose.”

Harry cleared his throat. “How’s Michael?”

The question took Louis quite by surprise. He had completely forgotten that he’d never told Harry that it was over between them, and he almost laughed.

“Oh, yeah. That’s over.”

“Aw, I’m sorry, Lou.” Harry placed a hand on Louis’ back. “That’s never easy.”

Louis just shrugged, not really wanting to get into it. 

“So…” Louis began. “The cruise. Looking forward to it?”

“I think it’s gonna be loads of fun!” Harry beamed. “It’s a great experience for both us and the fans. And it’ll be lovely to go back to Barcelona.”

The words hung in the air, Louis suddenly feeling on edge. When he and Harry were together, they’d taken an unforgettable holiday to Barcelona. They rode cable cars, ate loads and loads of food, and Louis had lost count of how many times they’d had sex. Louis distinctly remembered those few days as being the time when he had decided that Harry was the person he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.

So, Louis wasn’t sure he agreed it’d be  _ lovely _ to go back to Barcelona, but, whatever.

“Niall said one of the Backstreet Boys told him port days are a great time to explore the ship, as most of the fans have got off. I might do that. I’ve seen all these places, anyway.”

“But have you  _ explored _ them?” Harry asked. “Sure, we’ve been. But how many of these places have we really seen?”

Louis chewed on his bottom lip and shrugged.

-

**October**

**Monday**

It just so happened that all four boys flew to Barcelona on the same flight, and it just so happened that Harry and Louis both fell slightly behind the others in the process of getting off the flight and collecting their baggage. They walked into the arrivals hall together, to the sheer elation of a group of fans waiting.

“Oops,” Harry said in amusement as they got into their waiting car. The other two had already started their journey to the hotel. “That’ll be all over the internet in a matter of minutes.”

“The new Lairport,” Louis said, before looking at Harry and pausing. “But I thought all that stuff was in the past.”

“Aw, people really loved us together. It’ll always be around, Louis.”

“I suppose.”

In a way, this cruise was dredging up old memories that Louis would rather forget; their break-up, well documented by the media; the painful process of growing apart; being so in love that they were sure they would always be together.

Louis wondered if they really were done for good.

“Hey,” Harry said quietly, rubbing the back of his index finger on Louis’ arm. “Come to my room for a drink when we get there?”

“Um-”

“I’ll invite the other two, too!” Harry said quickly. “Just a little toast between the four of us.”

Harry texted the other two as they arrived at the hotel, and they both said they would be over soon. They checked in and Louis left Harry to go and dump his bags in his own room before returning a few minutes later.

“Hey,” Harry said. “The others aren’t here yet.”

For God’s sake. Louis sighed, folding his arms and looking around Harry’s room. It was much the same as Louis’, albeit a slightly different layout. He kicked his shoes off and threw himself down on the bed. He found it hard to catch himself, sometimes, before he did such overly familiar things like this.

“Do you think this is gonna be okay?” Harry said, just above a whisper as he sat down next to Louis. “Let’s face it, it’s kind of an awkward situation.”

Louis looked at Harry, whose face was full of indecision and awkwardness. Louis liked to think he still knew how to read Harry after all these years, but he couldn’t quite read him now.

“It’s been ages,” Louis said, trying to sound convincing. “It’ll be fine. You’ve moved on, I’ve moved on. I think we’ll be alright.”

“Yeah, I think so.” Harry folded his arms, a defensive move. He sighed. “Imagine. Last time we were here together, we’d never have believed that the next time we came, we’d have split up.”

“Mm, it’s sad,” Louis said without really meaning to. Oops. “Never mind. We’re happy. You’re with Christian, and I’m- yeah. Happy.”

“Louis?”

“Mm?”

Harry looked down at his lap and gave a small smile. “You’ll always be my first love. That will never change.”

Louis wanted to burst into fucking tears. This whole thing was so sad. He didn’t even know if they would click as a couple anymore, if they would thrive the way they did when they were teenagers. It had felt like destiny, back then. It was just sad.

“Can I tell you something?” Louis said quietly, turning his body to look at Harry,  _ really  _ look at him. Harry nodded. “Despite everything that happened in the past, I’ll always consider you as mine. I mean… I know you’re with Christian, and that’s completely fine. But I feel like a part of me always assumes we’ll get back together again down the line.” Louis sighed. “Sorry.”

Harry was speechless. He blinked quickly several times, eyes wide. He opened his mouth to finally reply when there was a sharp knock on the door.

_ “Let us in!”  _ Niall called through the door.

-

Louis had spent over a year trying to make things not awkward with Harry, and to be sort of okay with the concept of Harry and Christian. He’d bulldozed all his hard work with that one bloody confession. There was a sort of charged atmosphere between them now, so many words left unsaid, and likely to remain unsaid while Liam and Niall were about.

“I’m definitely staying on the ship when we’re in Cannes,” Niall said with a nod. “There’s nothing to do.”

“There’s a beach,” Harry pointed out. 

“I’d probably get swarmed by fans, though. Nah, I’ll stay on the ship and enjoy the facilities.”

Louis was only half-listening to the other three blather on. He had slumped on the bed, now practically lying on it. Niall was sitting at the end of the bed with his legs crossed under him and Louis had placed one of his feet on Niall’s knee. It would’ve been nice if they’d been put up in suites, so they could hang out without all four of them being squashed onto a king size bed, but Louis supposed they weren’t the big deal they once were.

“I’m gonna go back to my room,” Louis announced. “I’m a bit tired and something tells me we won’t be getting much sleep on this cruise.”

“Yeah!” Niall cried. “Howie told me he was getting, like, two hours sleep a night on their cruise!”

“Who the fuck is Howie?” Harry asked, frowning.

“From the Backstreet Boys,” Louis informed him. 

“Don’t go,” Harry murmured to Louis as Niall started chattering about something else Howie had said. “I wanted to talk.”

“These two won’t leave until you kick them out.” Louis smiled, nudging Harry in the ribs. “I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?”

“Yeah. Okay.”

“See you tomorrow,” Louis repeated, louder as to address the other two, too. 

“Yeah!” Niall cried out again. “First annual 1D Cruise!”

Louis raised his eyebrows, glancing at Harry and laughing. “Night, lads.”

-

**Tuesday**

Checking in for the cruise with a bunch of fans watching was a little nerve-wracking. Soon enough, all four boys were welcomed onto the ship but it was a full hour before any of the fans would be allowed to board. The boys’ suites weren’t yet ready so the cruise director took them on a tour around the ship.

“This is the main deck. This is where all the deck parties will be held.”

The deck was huge, a pool at one end with a stage in the middle. Louis smiled to himself, imagining being on the stage, surrounded by fans. Back with his boys.

They were led through the buffet restaurant area and down into the theatre where they’d be performing a concert. The auditorium held just over a thousand, so the boys would be performing two concerts with the fans divided into two groups. It had been a long time since they’d performed a proper concert to such a small audience. Louis noticed Harry looking around with barely contained excitement. He’d always loved doing small shows.

The cruise director showed them round a few more of the decks but Louis didn’t reckon they’d get to experience a lot of it. He’d like to try but there was no telling what this event was going to be like.

The fans were due to start boarding in twenty minutes, and the buffet opened early so the boys could grab a bit of lunch while it was still quiet.

“I might nap when we’re allowed in our rooms,” Harry mused, ripping off a piece of bread. “I feel like a teenager going on a lads’ holiday to, like, Ibiza or somewhere.”

“What  _ are _ you talking about?” Louis asked, amused.

“Just, as in… we’re gonna be up late partying. Drinking. Surrounded by girls!”

“Girls?” Louis snorted, shaking his head. “The difference between this and a lads’ holiday is that nobody is going to get laid.”

“Don’t say that, Lou,” Harry said. “There’s gonna be tons of hot, gay waiters on the staff.”

Louis threw Harry a dirty, hard look, hoping it conveyed what he didn’t know how to put into words. Harry let out a little laugh and looked away, so Louis was sure he’d failed to convey it.

“Don’t shag any waiters, Lou.” Niall gave him a stern look as if he’d been the one to say it. “This cruise is about the fans.”

“I know,” Louis replied through gritted teeth.

-

Harry’s comment had rubbed Louis up the wrong way, and he continued to wind him up as the afternoon went on. They were on the deck for the Sail Away party, and Niall nervously watched as the ship rocked slightly. He popped a sea sickness pill and smiled weakly at Louis.

“Just in case,” he told him.

There was a DJ playing songs for the party and as a Coldplay song started to play, Harry trotted over to Louis.

“This song reminds me of your barbecue. Remember? You met Christian for the first time. I can’t believe I didn’t get to meet Michael.”

“Can we just… not talk about Michael?” Louis replied, trying to keep his face neutral for the sake of the fans. “It’s in the past.”

“Such a shame!”

Louis felt slight embarrassment creep up his stomach, his face flushing. Harry was knocking him back, after what he’d said last night. It was humiliating. He knew Harry was in a relationship. He wasn’t trying to come onto him. Fucking hell. He knew this cruise was a bad idea.

He slipped away, unnoticed and returned to his stateroom. Heading out onto the balcony, he could hear the party going on above. Despite his single status, and despite the fact he was here with his three best friends, he felt more alone than ever in this moment. He didn’t want to be the guy to ruin anybody’s fun, particularly not the fans. They’d paid a lot of money for this and waited a long time for a reunion like this. He owed it to them.

He sighed heavily and headed inside his room. He had to get back to the party.

-

Louis tried his best to stay away from Harry for the remainder of the party. It wasn’t much longer than an hour before it started winding down and the boys left one by one - Niall was the last one standing, of course - and Louis headed back to his room for a nap before they were due on stage for two sessions of a game night. Apparently, four fans would be chosen to join the boys in a game of Family Fortunes. Louis thought it would be great fun, as long as Harry wasn’t on his team.

He was woken after half an hour by Niall hammering on the door. When Louis opened up, all three boys poured in and Louis climbed back into bed as the lads all sat on the sofa.

“Okay, so. Very important,” Liam said. “Niall said you don’t have anything to wear for the pyjama theme night tonight. How could you come so unprepared, Louis?”

“Well,” Louis said, yawning. “I was asleep five minutes ago in a boxers and t-shirt, can’t I just wear this?”

“If you were going for authentic, you’d turn up naked,” Harry offered with a smirk.

“And what the fuck would you know about it?” Louis snapped.

Harry’s face fell, and Louis immediately felt awful. Harry looked hurt, which wasn’t necessarily his intention. He prayed that Harry remembered that Louis got crabby when he was woken up. The worst part was, Harry was absolutely right. Louis did normally still sleep naked.

“Okay, so!” Niall said, clapping his hands together.  _ “Were  _ you planning to just turn up in boxers, or something, Lou? Because, you know… I think that could work. At a push.”

“That’s a bit much for me, Nialler. Putting myself on display in such a fashion. Who am I? Harry?”

Louis grinned at Harry, a peace offering. Harry threw a small smile back.

“Well actually, I’m just turning up in a thong,” Harry replied.

“Who sleeps in a thong?” Louis grimaced. “At least make it believable, love.”

Niall sighed. “Seriously, Lou-”

“Niall. We’re getting paid to be here, therefore this is our job. How unprofessional do you bloody think I am? I don’t know where you got the impression that I didn’t have anything to wear but  _ of course I have something to wear.  _ You’ll have to wait and see, it’s a surprise. But I’m gonna throw this out there: I would bet my entire life savings on Liam wearing some kind of Batman outfit.”

Liam’s face fell and he looked absolutely distraught. Louis laughed in delight.

“Ha!” Niall laughed along, too. “And I bet Tootsie’s gonna jump out of nowhere dressed as Robin!”

“Don’t fucking call her Tootsie!” Liam shouted. “It’s not fair, Niall. She’s never been anything but lovely to you. Don’t take the piss.”

“Sorry, sorry! It’s just… her feet, Liam…”

“Lads!” Harry called over them. “Look, can you two go and argue somewhere else? I need a word with Lou.”

Niall and Liam fell silent, the weight of Harry’s more serious tone settling over them. They murmured agreements and made to leave the room, resuming their bickering along the way. The room fell silent and Louis bunched up some of the duvet and cuddled it to his chest.

Harry threw a small grin to him, tilting his head. “Sleepy Louis is my favourite Louis.” 

Louis smiled sheepishly at Harry. “Sorry I snapped at you.”

Harry shrugged as if it was no big deal. He turned to look out of the balcony door and Louis did too, both of them watching the gentle sea. It was calming, which Louis needed.

“I just wanted to finish our chat from the other night.” Harry sighed and leaned forward. He held his head in his hands, fingers teasing his short curls. “The thing you said about always assuming we’ll get back together-”

“I didn’t mean it like…” Louis frowned, trying to find his words. “I made it sound like- I dunno.”

“No, I know how you feel. It’s hard to believe the story of us can ever be truly over.”

Louis sighed and nodded. “Yeah. That’s exactly it.”

“I feel like that, too. I don’t think our book will ever be closed. There will still be an ‘us’, no matter what the capacity.”

Louis wasn’t all that sure what Harry was trying to say, considering he was in a relationship, but he didn’t want to ask. Harry knew Louis better than anybody did, better than Louis knew himself. As Louis stared at Harry, conflict and confusion clouding his mind, Harry turned to smile at him.

“I know we’ve had our problems down the line,” Harry said. “But you’ll always be my best friend.”

Louis smiled softly. “Same.”

Harry stood to his feet. “I’m gonna go. I’ll see you in an hour for Family Fortunes?”

Louis nodded. “Yeah. See ya.”

“I hope you  _ have _ got something for pyjama night, Lou. Don’t turn up naked!”

Louis laughed. “I won’t, I won’t.”

Once Harry had gone, Louis laid back on the bed and sighed heavily.

-

As it turned out, Louis was on the same team as Niall for the first game of Family Fortunes, with Liam and Harry on the opposite team. They each had two fans join their team and Juliana, of course, was host. The boys were arranged so that when they headed up to give their answers, they would always be playing against a fan.

A portion of fans were surveyed for the game as they boarded the ship. Juliana would read out the survey question and the teams had to each find the top answers given. 

“Over here we have the Horan-Tomlinson family!” Juliana gestured to her right. “Introduce yourselves!”

“I’m Niall Horan!” Niall waved obnoxiously. “I’m in the band One Direction, and I’m a Virgo. Long walks on the beach are okay, but I’d much rather stay at home with a bit of alcohol, mood lighting, nudity is encouraged-”

“Oh-kay!” Louis said loudly. “This cruise is not your own personal singles’ night, Niall. Especially because you are not single.”

“Spoilsport.”

Louis rolled his eyes. “I’m Louis Tomlinson. I’m in the band One Direction. My team is going to win Family Fortunes today.”

“You’re a liar!” Harry shouted loudly from the other side. “A dirty liar!”

Louis stuck his middle finger up at him and Harry pulled up his non-existent sleeves.

The two fans on Niall and Louis’ team introduced themselves as Claire and Alex. They seemed nervous but excited.

“Right. And over here, we have the Payne-Styles family!”

The two fans on the opposing team were Steph and Isla, the latter looking like she was about to pass out with nerves. 

“I’m Liam!” Liam waved at the audience. “I, um… I’m married. And I was born in August? I have smelly feet!”

“You have smelly everything!” Louis shouted over. Liam shot him a sarcastic smile.

“Hello! I’m Harry.” Harry caught Louis’ attention as he waved a large hand around. “I won’t tell you anything about me because you all know too much already.”

Louis caught himself laughing loudly.

They got on with the game, and Niall and Louis took an early lead. Louis was taken by surprise at how good Niall was at it, hitting the top answers more often than not.

Alex was up from the Horan-Tomlinson family and Harry was up from the Payne-Styles family.

“Okay. Top five answers. We asked a hundred fans to name something you’d associate with Simon Cowell.”

Alex hit the buzzer a split second before Harry.

“Pec implants!”

The entire crowd erupted in laughter, while Harry’s eyes, full of glee, darted to Louis’. Harry was trying his best not to burst into laughter, drawing his lips into his mouth to keep his face in check. He shook his head, looking down at the floor.

“Pec implants!” Juliana repeated. “Our survey says…”

A  _ ding _ rang out and the screen behind Juliana flashed up with the words  _ pec implants _ in at number three.

“Twenty four fans said pec implants!” Juliana said through laughter. Harry finally lost it and burst into laughter. “Alrighty then. Harry?”

Harry was still trying to recover. He ummed and ahhed before nodding. “Britain’s Got Talent?”

It was the fifth answer, with only three people having given it as an answer.

Juliana came over to ask the Horan-Tomlinson family for more answers. Niall was next, and he tapped his chin in thought.

“X Factor.”

The X Factor was the top answer, of course. Louis’ team went on to win that round too, the next round being stolen by the Payne-Styles family.

“Okay, Harry,” Juliana prompted. “A song written by Liam Payne. What do you reckon? Liam, stop whispering things to him.”

“Cheater!” Louis called.

“Um…” Harry pouted in thought, before looking Louis in the eye. “Home?”

Louis felt himself stop breathing as he and Harry maintained eye contact. Louis didn’t even see Harry’s answer ranked on the board until Harry cheered, noticing the answer had come in third.

It ended up as a tight game, but the Horan-Tomlinsons won. Juliana handed a miniscule trophy to each of the winning team, and a goodie bag for each of the four fans. The game came to an end and as the fans filed out, Harry played with the sound effects.

“Stop!” Juliana sighed with a smile. “If you’re pratting around out here they’ll never leave.”

“How long have we got?”

“You guys can take a break for half an hour. No more! We’re due to start again in 40 minutes.”

The boys all headed backstage, grabbing their phones. The ship WiFi was weak and patchy but Louis managed to send a text off to Fizzy before he laid on the floor, legs draped over the arm of the sofa and played a game on his phone.

“You know,” Liam said. “I’ve been thinking.”

“Ooh, careful, Payno.”

Liam huffed before Harry interjected. “Go on, Liam. Say what you were gonna say.”

Louis rolled his eyes, swinging his legs off of the sofa and sitting up so he could see Liam, who was sitting at the other end.

“Maybe we should think of doing another album together.”

The words hung in the air as everybody contemplated this. Even Juliana looked deep in thought. 

“I’d be up for it,” Harry said.

“I mean…” Louis cleared his throat. “It might be difficult. But I’m game if we can fit it around everybody’s schedules.”

Everybody turned to look at Niall, who was chewing his thumbnail. He shrugged with a sigh.

“Took you fuckers long enough.”

Liam threw a cushion at his head.

-

The second group of fans filed in for their session of Family Fortunes, and it went off much like the first. Harry and Louis were on the same team this time, and due to a bit of teamwork they won. Louis treasured his two little trophies, dancing with both of them at poor Liam who was the only one out of the four of them who hadn’t won.

“Give him one of your trophies, Lou,” Harry whispered. “Come on, he’s your brother.”

Louis shot him a glare. “I won both of these, fair and square.”

“Louis,” Harry said sternly.

Louis sighed and walked over to Liam.

“You did good, mate.” He held out one of his trophies. “Have this. You deserve it.”

“Aw, Lou!” Liam’s tone was mocking. He likely knew Louis had to be talked into it. “Thank you.”

Louis glared at Harry one last time before they all made to leave.

“See you all at pyjama night!” Juliana called out to them, running off in another direction. “Be good.”

“I’m kinda excited that we kept it a secret from each other!” Harry said. “How fun!”

-

On second thought, the lads really should’ve discussed their outfits beforehand. 

Louis had come out on the stage first, proudly wearing his red Power Ranger pyjamas. Liam was next and surprise surprise, he emerged in a Batman onesie. Niall came out, smug and dressed in a Superman onesie. The two bickered for a few minutes, pretending to spar a bit before Harry jumped on stage.

“What the fuck?” Louis whined. “You stole my idea!”

Harry scoffed. He was dressed in identical Power Ranger pyjamas to Louis, save for the fact Harry’s were pink. Harry placed his hands on his hips and tilted his head.

“I like pink,” Harry said evenly.

Louis sighed, betraying a small grin and picking up the microphone to address the fans, who were going wild, as they had been every time they saw Harry and Louis interact.

“I swear,” he giggled to the crowd. “This wasn’t intentional. Pure coincidence.”

Harry leaned in to speak. “If we were coordinating, we’d  _ never _ have put red and pink together.”

Louis laughed, shaking his head at Harry before gesturing over to where Niall and Liam were leaning their elbows on the DJ booth, arm wrestling.

“Niall definitely did that on purpose, though.”

-

It was 3am and Louis was drunk. He hadn’t planned on getting drunk. It felt weird to do it surrounded by thousands of fans, but it seemed to be the done thing and he supposed it was a relatively safe environment. To an extent.

Niall was spending short bursts of time in the crowd, dancing with groups of fans for a few minutes at a time before he needed a break for some space. Niall was drunk too, and Louis resolved to keep at least half an eye on him. Liam was nowhere to be seen - Louis reckoned he’d retired - and Harry was currently leading a conga line around the deck.

“Tommo!” Niall jumped back on the stage, picking up a drink that Juliana had put on a table for him. “Have you been in the crowd?!”

“Yeah, a bit. Having fun?”

“Thanks for agreeing to this, man.” Niall clumsily slapped a hand on Louis’ shoulder. “Thank God Christian and Tootsie aren’t here, eh?”

“Liam would’ve been gone even earlier if she was here.” Louis raised an eyebrow. “Cati would be here partying with us. And… I don’t know Christian well enough…”

“Christian’s a good one!” Niall said. “He would’ve found this whole thing hilarious! You and Harry accidentally matching might’ve not have been so funny.”

“What do you mean?”

“Come on, Tommo. Even the strongest man would feel insecure about the two of you.”

Louis’ head was swimming from alcohol and he swatted at Niall’s arm. He looked up to the upper deck, watching as Harry had selfie after selfie with fans. Louis realised that he himself had spent a lot of time on and around the stage but hadn’t ventured out very far into the crowd. He jumped off the stage, tearing through gaps in the crowd as fast as he could. He could hear his bodyguard behind him in hot pursuit, and as Louis got into the grand atrium, he jumped into a glass lift and his bodyguard just about managed to stick his foot between the doors as they closed. A few fans managed to get in too, and Louis had selfies with them as he ignored his bodyguard’s scowls.

“Is it weird being around Harry again?” a fan asked.

“No, of course not!” Louis dismissively waved a hand, wrist loose. “We hang out all the time. We’re all best friends. It’s true!”

“That’s so nice.”

“Yeah!” Louis replied enthusiastically. “It’s been ages since we split up, it’s just so far in the past now, yeah? I almost forget sometimes. Nah! You can tell everyone me and Harry are so cool.”

The fan stared at him with wide eyes. Was she dazed to be in a lift with him? Was she enjoying seeing him so drunk? Was she excited to hear about Harry and Louis’ relationship to one another? That was probably it.

The doors opened and Louis didn’t even remember if he’d pressed a floor. He left the lift and his bodyguard followed him closely as he took pictures with fans along the way. They were  _ everywhere. _ Walking aimlessly, Louis found himself in the buffet restaurant which was closed, save for a pizza bar at the other end.

“Pizza!” he said excitedly to his bodyguard who looked thoroughly unimpressed. As he made his way across the restaurant, the PA system crackled to life.

_ “LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!” _

A grin broke across Louis’ face. He’d recognise that drunken drawl anywhere.

_ “If I’ve woken you up… shame on you!”  _ Harry said.  _ “Get out of bed and come join the party! No sleep ‘til sunrise! Am I right? Party, party, par-tay!” _

Louis laughed loudly and practically everybody in the restaurant was watching him. He smirked, continuing his journey over to the pizza bar and requesting two slices of pepperoni, one of which he gave to his bodyguard. He really should try and remember this guy’s name.

“Eat your pizza,” Louis said as he led them back towards the grand atrium, noticing his bodyguard was holding the pizza as if he was carrying it for Louis.

“I’m not hungry.”

“Come on! You have to be.” Louis frowned. “Shit, you’re not vegetarian are you? Lactose intolerant? That other thing?”

His bodyguard raised his eyebrows. “No.”

“Bloody eat the pizza.”

The bodyguard finally relented and ate the pizza as they walked along. By the time Louis found himself on the upper level of the main deck, he felt like he’d taken a hundred selfies. When he emerged into the cool night, he could see Harry a dozen feet away, dancing along to the music surrounded by fans.

When Harry spotted Louis, he welcomed his presence with a cheer. Some of the fans around Harry swarmed towards Louis and he did his best to wade through them towards Harry.

“Hey.” Harry beamed.

“I heard your little announcement. You’re so mean.”

Harry shrugged, grinning as if pleased with himself. “Well, this is no time to be asleep.”

“Liam’ll kill you.” Louis leaned in to whisper in Harry’s ear. “Hey, do you remember my bodyguard’s name?”

“Delroy.”

“Delroy!” Louis cried, turning around to wink at Delroy who was close by. Delroy levelled him with an unimpressed look, although it seemed to be his default expression.

“Hey.” Harry reached out and took Louis’ hand. “Dance with me!”

Louis hesitated, looking at Harry, and then around them. “Um. Okay.”

Harry pulled him close and moved his mouth to Louis’ ear. “Come on. They’ll love it.”

“But… rumours…”

“Yeah, yeah. Who cares?”

Harry and Louis were practically forced close by the crowd around them. They moved together, drunk and aimless to the club beat of some song the DJ was playing. Louis spotted Niall down on the stage with a vodka bottle, pouring into people’s mouths.

“God, look at him.”

Harry leaned over the railing to look down. “Ha! Why am I not surprised?”

They continued to dance, Harry’s body bumping occasionally against Louis’. When he felt Harry’s hand on his hip, moving up and down slowly, Louis broke away.

“Alight. I’m going to bed.”

“Bed?” Harry scoffed. “No sleep ‘til sunrise!”

“Yeah, alright. Are you aware sunrise will be well after 7am?” Louis grinned. “I’m going to sleep.”

Delroy cleared the path and swiftly ushered Louis to the stairs. They passed by the group of fans waiting by the corridor where the boys were all staying. Louis greeted them before he finally got into his suite, leaving Delroy to relieve Liam’s bodyguard for sentry duty.

-

**Wednesday**

Louis was woken by a gentle yet insistent knocking on his door. He looked through the peephole and saw Liam.

“Hiya, mate.” Louis yawned, returning to climb into bed. “What’s up?”

“We’re in Cannes, mate! You getting up? Coming off with us?”

“I think I’m gonna stay on today. Enjoy the peace and quiet.”

“The other two are just getting ready to get off. We’re all gonna meet at three for a late lunch. Will you at least come for that?”

Louis rubbed his eyes. “Look, if I’m at a loose end, I’ll come. But no promises.”

“Okay,” Liam relented. “Have a good day, Lou.”

He gave Louis a quick kiss to the head before departing. Louis pottered about, heading out onto his balcony before he threw on some sweats and poked his head out of the door. It seemed quiet. A bodyguard named Spencer was guarding the corridor, and Louis greeted him as he approached.

“Hey, man. Where’s Delroy?”

“He’s asleep. You need me to come somewhere with you? The other boys have got off the ship with their security.”

“Uh… you know what? It seems kind of quiet. I think I’ll be okay.”

“It’s no trouble,” Spencer insisted.

“I’ll be alright. Take an hour off, Spence. Try the pizza bar.” Louis grinned. “Can do do me a favour, though? Let Delroy know I’ll be getting off the ship at about half two.”

“Will do. Have a good day, Tommo.”

Louis saluted Spencer and headed off towards the lifts. After the craziness of the last 24 hours, Louis relished the feeling of being completely on his own. As he headed to the buffet restaurant for breakfast, his sleepy brain started to daydream. Of being a regular person on a regular cruise. Two weeks of doing nothing but eating his own body weight in indulgent food. Maybe as an Anniversary holiday with Harry?

Fuck.

Louis piled his plate high with scrambled egg and sat by the window. He saw maybe a dozen fans, and less than half approached him. Out of those, he’d had to coax a few of them over. It warmed his heart, actually, that they hadn’t wanted to disturb him while he was eating. He went back for seconds (pancakes with maple syrup and bacon) and thirds (a croissant with some cheese and cold meat). Afterwards, he headed to the pool. The sun was shining and although it wasn’t very warm, it was pleasant enough. He pulled his socks off, rolled up the legs of his jogging bottoms and slipped his feet into the water. 

He took a photo of his legs in the pool, intending to upload it later. A few more fans found him, but he didn’t mind, chatting to them all for a bit before he decided to head back to his suite for a shower. He found himself spending longer than usual getting ready but that was probably due to the fact he had the time spare, and probably nothing to do with the fact that he couldn’t stop thinking about seeing Harry for lunch soon.

-

“Nice of you to join us,” Harry remarked with a smile as Louis approached the table. “I thought you were too busy with your spa day.”

Louis sighed exaggeratedly as he sat down. “Why didn’t I think of the spa? That actually would’ve been really nice.”

“No need.” Harry smirked. “I can give you a massage.” 

“O-kay!” Niall said loudly. “Moving on. What  _ did _ you get up to, Tommo?”

“Just had a wander, really. Sat by the pool. Ate breakfast. It was so quiet. Met a few fans, though.”

“We all had girls following us around all day,” Niall replied. “You’d think they’d go off and explore the place, but no.”

“As if.” Louis grinned. “Good day, Liam?”

“Hm?” Liam looked up from his phone. “Yeah, great.”

“Too- Tina’s not feeling very well,” Harry explained, a small smirk on his face way he stumbled over his words. Liam wouldn’t stand for another mention of Niall’s nickname. “He’s a bit worried.”

“I’m not  _ worried.” _ Liam frowned. “Just wish I was home with her.”

“Don’t you dare even think about it,” Louis warned. 

“I’m not. I’m not!”

Louis looked at Niall and shook his head. A waiter came over and they all ordered food - Louis was 99% sure Liam had no idea what he’d just ordered - and Louis took to uploading the picture of his legs in the pool.

“Hey.” Harry kicked Louis gently under the table to get his attention. “Looking forward to tonight’s deck party?”

Louis shrugged, laying his phone on the table. “Movie night. I predict… lots of Disney Princesses.”

“How did you know what I was wearing?” Harry replied in faux-outrage.

Louis snorted. “I was talking about Niall.”

Harry cackled and Niall turned to glare at the both of them.

“I take it you’re not going as a Prince, then,” Harry said.

“No. We really should’ve thought about coordinating our costumes for these bloody things. Instead of wanting to keep it secret.”

“We’re coordinated for tomorrow night.”

Louis smirked. “True.”

Niall turned to face in their direction. “Payno’s probably wearing his PJs from last night and going as Batman.”

“Nah,” Louis said. “I reckon he’s going as Pretty Woman. Ooh, what a sight. That short skirt and those boots...”

Liam hung up the phone and turned to glare at them.

-

The boys had a lovely group lunch, and Louis was so pleased that they all got on as if nothing had changed. A few years back, when Harry and Louis had split up and all they did was fight and argue, the atmosphere was never too great when all four of them were together. Once they’d settled their differences (through the medium of becoming fuck buddies) the atmosphere had lightened somewhat. Nowadays, it was pretty much back to normal. How it was before everything turned to shit.

They made their way back to the ship, a couple of the boys hoping to catch a quick nap before they did the first round of meet & greets. They would be having a photo taken with everybody on board, sorted into small groups, and it promised to be very draining. 

As they waited to get back on board, Harry was standing behind Louis and tapping out a rhythm onto Louis’ back with his palms.

“Stop it.” Louis glared over his shoulder. “Stop it!”

Harry chuckled quietly, upping the tempo of his tapping. Louis sighed with a growl, spinning around and grabbing Harry’s wrists. The way Harry went immediately pliant at his touch stirred something wicked inside of Louis. The dark look in Harry’s eyes told Louis that he’d felt it too.

“Stop… doing… that,” Louis said, voice low. “Or I’m going to throw you overboard.”

Harry licked his lips and smiled sweetly. “Sorry, Sir.”

“And you can stop  _ that, _ too.” Louis rolled his eyes, releasing Harry’s wrists and folding his arms. Harry hadn’t been flirty with him like this in a long time, but then again they hadn’t spent days in each other’s company like this for a long time, either.

As they got back on board and got into the lift - the four boys and Delroy, the other bodyguards jogging down the stairs to meet the lift on their floor - Harry placed his hands on Louis’ hips as he pushed him inside.

“Will you stop?” Louis asked quietly. “Why do you feel the need to touch me?”

Harry hummed in amusement and as the lift doors opened and the boys all walked out, Harry slowed and Louis fell into step with him, Delroy and Miro either side of them pretending not to listen.

“Well, you used to love it when I touched you, Louis.”

“I’m just… not sure how appropriate it is in this moment of time.”

“Oh, fucking lighten up.” Harry swiped a playful smack at Louis’ stomach and Louis cried out indignantly. “It’s me. Stop getting your knickers in a twist.”

Louis turned to Delroy and raised an eyebrow. “You gonna let him brutally attack me like that?”

“Yes, Sir,” Delroy replied.

Harry cackled loudly and high-fived Delroy. Miro was trying not to laugh.

“You’re fired, Delroy.” Louis fixed him with a glare. “As if you’re not gonna even protect me.”

“You specifically told me when I was hired, Sir, that I should ignore all banter between you and the boys. Especially Harry.”

“I did  _ not _ say especially Harry!” Louis scoffed, pinching Delroy’s arm. “You are such a liar.”

Delroy finally cracked a smile. “Well, I know Harry won’t hurt you.”

Something in Louis’ stomach sunk at that. Harry had done a lot to hurt him over the years. And Louis had done a lot to hurt Harry, too. 

Louis fell silent and as they got to their corridor, he smiled at Harry.

“See you later.” Louis pushed into his suite, sighing. Delroy followed him in, hovering in the doorway. “Go get some rest, Delroy.”

“I didn’t say anything to offend you, did I?” Delroy asked, concerned. “You went quiet, and I thought-”

“No, no, no. Not your fault at all. Don’t worry. Please go get some rest.”

“Thank you, Sir.”

“For God’s sake, stop calling me Sir!”

-

“You look amazing, Lou,” Harry said quietly.

Louis looked in the full-length mirror of Liam’s suite. The outfit was tailored very well, the trousers in particular accentuated his arse perfectly which is all Louis really looked for in skillful tailoring. The shirt made his shoulders look nice and broad and although it was tucked in, it came in at the waist and didn’t conceal any of his figure.

It had been a long time since they’d all coordinated like this, but they had agreed that all of them wearing Captain outfits for the meet & greet would be fun. And Louis couldn’t help but noticed Harry looked bloody sexy. He tried not to look at him. White trousers were not the time to get in any tricky situations, especially when Harry was likely to become deliberately provocative if Louis let on that he liked what he saw.

_ “Now _ you look like a boyband,” Juliana remarked. “Come on, then. Hats on.”

Harry fixed his captain’s hat on his head and Louis watched out of the corner of his eye. He wanted to fuck him wearing it. The boys all gathered round to pose for a photo, just the four of them. Louis draped his arm across Niall’s shoulders and Harry placed his over Liam’s, purposely letting their hands rest against each other. Louis’ breath hitched.

As they broke away and prepared to let in the first fans, Harry slipped past the other boys to stand next to Louis.

“All this nautical paraphernalia around the place is making me want another tattoo.”

Louis’ right arm became itchy, as if on cue. He scratched absently at his wrist, the rope tattoo there inked to complement the anchor on Harry’s left wrist. Harry smiled, rubbing his own wrist through the cuff of his shirt. Louis could hear the fans starting to filter into the adjacent room, lining up to wait their turn. Harry unbuttoned his cuffs and rolled his sleeves up.

“Harry, we haven’t seen a single fan yet and you’re ruining the whole coordinated outfit thing,” Liam frowned.

Harry didn’t seem to have even heard Liam speak as he continued to neatly fold up the arms of his shirt. 

“Ready, boys?” Juliana asked.

The next three hours were a blur of photo after photo after photo. Each group of fans seemed to have arranged amongst themselves who was standing next to which member, so they shuffled about so much that Louis started to get dizzy. He’d often be pointedly placed next to Harry, who took advantage of the situation by wrapping his arm around Louis’ waist and gently stroking patterns into his skin through his shirt. Louis even thought he felt Harry’s hand graze his arse.

When they’d finally met over a thousand fans, the boys were released to get changed and have something to eat. Niall was going on about how he wanted to raid the pizza bar and Harry nudged Louis.

“Wanna get room service in my room?”

Louis cocked an eyebrow. “No. Me and Delroy have a date in the dining room.”

“Ooooh!” Harry cooed loudly. “You and Delroy? I suppose he is very burly.”

Louis looked over his shoulder to where Delroy was trailing behind. He and Miro were in perfect step with each other, and it hit Louis how many times he and Harry separated themselves from the others. 

“You never told me what you’re wearing to the deck party.”

“Mm, because it’s a surprise!” Louis flicked Harry’s ear. “Don’t think I’ll stay late tonight. I wanna get up early and go explore Florence.”

“Oh?” Harry shrugged. “I’m gonna get a car and just sort of drive around the place. See some places I’d never see otherwise.”

“Don’t fucking get lost and miss the boat.” Louis paused as they reached his door. “And  _ don’t _ lose track of time.”

“You should come with me. Scrap Florence.”

Louis swallowed. He’d love nothing more. But… he shouldn’t. Willfully spending time with his ex -  _ alone, _ since they wouldn’t need Delroy and Miro - who was in a serious relationship with someone else was a terrible idea. However…  the idea of Harry driving around remote parts of Italy on his own, when he would eventually have a boat to catch, was much worse...

“Knock for me in the morning and I’ll see what I think.”

-

After a fairly peaceful dinner, during which the few fans that did approach Louis were softly rebuffed by Delroy, Louis started to get ready for movie night. He was going as Danny from Grease, which he reckoned would be a fan favourite. He was on his third attempt at a quiff when there was a knock at his door. He looked through the peephole and saw Niall shifting his weight from left foot to right.

“What?” Louis said, whining as he opened the door. “You shouldn’t be here. Our costumes are supposed to be a surprise.”

Niall strolled in, looking Louis up and down. “What are you supposed to be?”

Louis raised his eyebrows, giving Niall the once over and letting out a laugh. He was wearing a plain white t-shirt and what looked like long johns. 

“Says you?” Louis shook his head. “What the hell is this?”

“You’ll see,” Niall smirked.

“What do you want?” Louis turned to the mirror to continue trying to work on his quiff. 

“Do you know what either of the other two are wearing?”

Louis shook his head. “No. But I’m guessing Liam will be Batman and Harry will be… someone female?”

“Maybe. Or… Jack from Titanic? Or Danny from Grease!”

Louis shot a look at Niall, who looked up at his hair and burst out laughing.

_ “You’re _ going as Danny, aren’t you? Well, maybe he’ll go as Sandy.”

“Stop it.” Louis sighed irritatedly. “And Jack was my first idea before I decided on Danny.”

Niall giggled stupidly and Louis had to refrain from hitting him. 

-

The boys were all taken up separately and Louis was put in a room with Liam as they waited to go out on deck.

“I  _ knew  _ you’d be going as Batman.” Louis sighed. “Could you really not think of anything else?”

“Shut up. If I wanna turn up to  _ every  _ party as Batman, I have the right.”

“You certainly do.”

“So, Danny?” Liam said. “Is Harry going as Sandy?”

“Why do you idiots keep saying this? Why would we have matching costumes?!”

Liam raised his eyebrows with a slight laugh. “Alright. Defensive.”

Louis took the straw out of his drink and threw it at Liam, just as Juliana came in to fetch him. She and Liam left and Louis sipped from his glass, the soft, dull noise of the crowd trailing in. Soon enough, Juliana returned for him.

“You’re third. Liam and Niall are already out there. Niall’s is a good one!”

_ I’ll be the judge of that, _ Louis thought to himself. He emerged onto the deck, Delroy parting the crowd so he could get onto the stage. The roar of the crowd made him smile. He hammed it up for the crowd, posing so that everybody could get a good shot of him in his costume. His quiff would probably deflate soon enough but a t-shirt, jeans, and leather jacket made for a very comfortable costume.

He turned around and startled when he saw Niall. He wore a long, white wig with matching beard, tied loosely half way down. He was wearing magical robes and carrying a wand. His fingers were covered in rings (honestly, that made him look more Harry Styles than anything) and his right hand was slightly blackened.

“Are you….  _ Dumbledore?” _

“Yes I fuckin’ well am, muggle!”

Louis scoffed, outraged. “I am  _ not _ a muggle.”

“Where’s your wand then, Danny?” Niall asked, tilting his head.

“I’m gonna find a Snape out in the crowd and get them to  _ Avada Kedavra  _ you.”

_ “Ladies and Gentlemen!” _ Juliana was saying into a microphone.  _ “Harry Styles!” _

Louis looked around, searching for Harry and having no clue where he was coming from. Niall was giggling behind Louis all the while, and when he finally spotted Harry, Louis nearly collapsed. He was wearing a black, skintight catsuit with a mask over his eyes and cat ears poking out from his hair.

“What the fuck?” Louis murmured to himself. 

Harry climbed up onto the stage, smirking at Louis. Harry’s every edge and curve was on display: his broad shoulders, the bulge of his thighs, his pert bum. The line of his dick.  _ Fuck.  _ That thing was indecent.

“Catwoman!” Liam cried. 

“Batman,” Harry replied, walking over to Liam and kissing him on the cheek.

Louis walked over to stand next to Harry, his heart thumping. “Harry, do you even know anything about Catwoman?”

Harry looked him in the eye. “Batman’s girlfriend, right?”

Liam hummed. “Well… it’s a bit complicated.”

“Alright, well. I’m gonna hang off of you all evening.”

Louis felt a niggle of jealousy and by the way Harry was grinning at him, he knew that was his intention.

“Harry,” Liam said with a tone of warning. “If you get drunk and kiss me in front of two thousand fans I swear to God-”

“Like I’m gonna put myself in the firing line of Tina’s wrath.”

“Exactly.” Liam nodded. “I’m glad we’re on the same page.”

Harry made to walk away as Liam did and Louis grabbed his elbow, stilling him.

“Um-” Louis stuttered, not sure what he wanted to say, exactly. What was wise to say. “Are you joking with this costume? God, Harry.”

Harry smiled brightly, looking pleased with himself. “You look really sexy, Lou. Leather always did suit you.”

Louis laughed in surprise, walking away to find a drink.

-

Like the night before, the boys didn’t take long to disperse, Niall once again staying mainly on the stage and making demands of the DJ, pouring spirits into the mouths of fans. Louis was in the grand atrium, having selfies with a long line of fans when he saw Liam walk past with Harry in tow.

He actually was following Liam around everywhere.

Half of Louis’ queue broke away and followed after the other two - charming - and as Liam and Harry walked past, Harry turned to smirk at Louis. He’d unzipped his catsuit down to the top of his butterfly tattoo, his pecs providing decent cleavage, as usual. Harry slipped his hand into Liam’s and Louis felt a surge of jealous rage.

He took photos with a few more fans before heading back out to the deck. He joined Niall up on the deck.

“You wanna head out into the crowd for a bit? Or not?” Louis asked. “I can take over the stage entertainment.”

Niall chewed his thumbnail, leaving black streaks on his chin from his diseased Dumbledore hand. Louis sighed, wiping Niall’s face and fixing his beard back in place.

“Not sure,” Niall said. “Is it bad?”

“Just stick to quieter bits, and get Spencer to lift you above his head if you start to get uncomfortable.”

Niall let out a small laugh. “Yeah, okay.”

Niall grabbed his bodyguard and drifted out into the crowd. Louis watched him for a few seconds to check he was okay. He seemed fine.

Louis entertained the crowd for a bit. He spotted a girl dressed as Sandy who was clearly eager for his attention and so he got Delroy to bring her up on stage. She was a bit tipsy, and she agreed to duet with Louis for a fairly poor rendition of  _ Summer Nights.  _ They posed for a few photos before she returned to the crowd.

“Where are Batman and Catwoman?” he asked down the microphone. “Are they fighting? Are they flirting? Who knows!”

As if on cue, Liam appeared surrounded by a crowd of fans. The little hoard swarmed across the deck towards the stage and Liam joined Louis.

“Hi, Danny,” he said, taking the microphone. “I managed to shake off Catwoman. She wouldn’t leave me alone. Where’s the Professor?”

“He’s gone off to do a bit of swishing and flicking,” Louis replied. He took the microphone from Liam and held it behind his back. “Where is Harry? Don’t tell me he’s gone to bed.”

“He left to try and work out how to have a wee without taking off his catsuit.”

Louis grinned. “Oh. Well, I might summon him back via the PA system, and I reckon Niall won’t be long. I just thought we could have some fun as a group. I just got a girl up here to sing with me.”

“Oh, I wondered what that awful noise was.”

Louis squawked indignantly, slapping Liam on the arm. “Rude!”

“Not  _ you,  _ obviously.” Liam rolled his eyes. “Oh, here comes Niall.”

Niall jogged up onto the stage, physically guided by his bodyguard. “Hi, shitheads! Where’s Catwoman?”

“Catwoman!” Louis called down the microphone. “Paging Catwoman. Batman needs you.”

Liam had jumped down off the stage and was having photos with the front of the crowd. Niall had found a beer and was dancing exaggeratedly to the music.

“Hey,” Louis said to him. “I reckon we get four fans up here and play some drinking games. Then I’m gonna go to bed.”

“What?! But it’s only-” Niall checked his watch, which Louis was pretty sure Dumbledore didn’t wear. “Fuck. 2.30.”

Louis winced. He was planning to get up at 8am to be off the ship by 9. That was when he remembered that he said he might go off with Harry tomorrow. Just the two of them. He couldn’t decide if the idea was scary or exciting.

Harry appeared, leaping across from the other side of the deck. He looked like he thought he was in Cats, the Musical, which made Louis cringe since it was the worst musical on earth. Harry bounded up on stage and slapped his hands onto Louis’ shoulders from behind, pressing against him. Louis could very clearly feel the line of Harry’s soft yet prominent cock nestled against his arse. This wasn’t fair.

“Where is my handsome darling?” Harry rasped in Louis’ ear and Louis could’ve sworn his dick twitched pathetically. “Oh, there he is.”

Harry pulled away and leapt off the stage to join Liam. Louis pouted grumpily, missing the physical contact immediately.

“Is there something going on?” Niall asked with a slight tone of disbelief. “He’s  _ so _ winding you up.”

“I’m not wound up. What Harry does is none of my business.”

“It’s your business when he presses against you when he’s dressed in Lycra.”

Louis tugged on Niall’s beard. “Don’t cause trouble, Nialler.”

Niall was no longer looking at Louis. Instead, he was pointedly watching Liam and Harry. They were making their way around the barrier at the front of the stage, posing together for photos. Harry draped himself on Liam’s shoulder and kissed his cheek. Louis felt his ears go red and Niall burst out laughing.

“Tommo.” Niall tried to control his laughter. “You might wanna be mindful of your face. The fans will be watching you closely, you know.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Don’t bloody lie! I’m trying to help. Don’t insult my intelligence!”

Niall fixed him with a hard stare above the rim of his half-moon glasses. Louis grinned sheepishly. 

“Fine.”

“Careful, Louis.” Niall had stopped laughing, talking quietly in Louis’ ear. “Look after your heart, okay? He’s with Christian.”

“Not tonight, Niall. Can we talk tomorrow?”

Niall shrugged, nodding as the other two climbed back on stage. Louis refocused on the task in hand, and asked Juliana to find four fans to come up. They were each assigned to one of the boys and Louis announced that each pairing was going to play a drinking game. Harry was at the other end of the stage and so Louis decided they’d go first.

“Okay!” Louis said, looking at Harry and trying not to grin. He walked over to stand on the other side of the fan. “What’s your name, love?”

“Tamsin,” she said, looking from Harry to Louis excitedly.

“Hi, Tamsin. Harry, pop that blindfold over her eyes.”

“Aw,” Harry said into his own microphone. “I thought this was for me.”

Louis shot Harry a look as he carefully placed the blindfold over the fan’s eyes and tied it behind her head. 

“Okay, let’s see. A drinking game for Harry and Tamsin.” Louis smirked, tilting his head as he stared at Harry. “I’ve got it. We’re gonna play a song from Harry Styles’ debut album, titled  _ Harry Styles. _ Harry had to feed Tamsin a shot every time he sings a female pronoun.”

Harry’s mouth twitched. “Oh, God. Lou, you’ll kill the poor girl.”

Louis rolled his eyes sassily and glared at Harry. He and Harry had come out as gay a good number of years ago, and the redundancy of the female pronouns was well known. Harry’s expression told Louis he was taking it good-naturedly, but Louis couldn’t decide if he himself had meant it good-naturedly or if he was trying to make a dig.

“Juliana, a beer for Harry and Tamsin, please.” Louis raised his eyebrows at Harry. “Don’t feed her tequila.”

Louis strolled over to the DJ booth and got him to bring Harry’s debut album up on the system. 

“Can I…?”

The DJ stepped aside and showed Louis basic controls. 

“Alright.” Louis looked at Harry. “Ready?”

Harry nodded, just finishing pouring the bottle of beer into a pint-sized plastic tumbler. He placed his hand on the back of Tamsin’s neck to brace her. Louis felt a bit concerned for her. She could end up downing a lot of beer in a short space of time, but if anyone knew this album inside out, it was Louis.

“Okay. Tamsin, just remember. You can back out at any time.”

He hit  _ play _ on track 3, and when the opening of  _ Carolina _ boomed around the deck, Harry turned to look at Louis with wide eyes.

“Oh, come on! We’ll need a couple more beers for this!”

“Joking, joking. Okay.” Louis changed the track. “What about this?”

_ Sweet Creature  _ started to play and the crowd went absolutely wild. Louis grinned sheepishly to Harry, who was smiling. He had to, he just had to.

He changed the track again.

_ “Shall we just search romantic comedies on Netflix and then see what we find?” _

“The  _ title _ is a female pronoun!” Harry cried.

“What?” Louis scoffed. “She’s not even had a drink yet.”

Harry rolled his eyes and Louis held his gaze during the opening line of the song.

_ “I’m selfish I know, but I don’t ever wanna see you with him.” _

“This is actually my personal favourite on the album,” Louis said, looking at Harry with no trace of amusement remaining. 

“That’s not true,” Harry replied.

_ “I hope you can see the shape that I’m in, while he’s touching your skin. He’s right where I should, where I should be.” _

Louis suddenly realised the atmosphere on the deck was… awkward. Tense. Whether he was feeling it between himself and Harry or it was something that the hundreds of people present felt too, well. He couldn’t know. He’d almost forgotten they were all there.

“Okay, okay.” He turned his attention back to the machine. “Enough joking about.”

He hit track seven and as  _ Kiwi _ started to play Harry shot him a glare. Louis left the DJ booth and walked over to join him and Tamsin as Harry was feeding beer into her mouth.

“Why are you giving me dirty looks? There’s not that many in this song.” Louis frowned, bringing the microphone up to his mouth. “She can take a sip, Harry. It doesn’t need to be a gulp.”

Harry scoffed. Louis took a few steps back, pulling his phone out and filming just as the third female pronoun came around and Harry tipped more beer into Tamsin’s mouth, spilling some of it down her chin.

“Oh.” Harry looked at Louis. “There’s only one in the chorus.”

“Well done, genius. You got there eventually.”

_ Kiwi _ contained nine female pronouns and Harry had managed to feed the entire beer to Tamsin in three minutes - save what he’d tipped down her face and into her cleavage - and she looked a little worse for wear when Harry took her blindfold off.

“Are you okay?” Harry frowned, glancing at Louis. “Drink lots of water, yeah?”

Louis handed Harry a bottle of water to give to Tamsin, and Harry pulled a bit of a panicked face to Louis.

“She’ll be fine. It was just one beer.”

“In the space of three minutes, Lou.” Harry grinned before holding the microphone to his mouth. “That wasn’t fair. I didn’t get any alcohol.”

“There’s no room in that catsuit for you to consume anything, Harry.”

Niall was next, and Louis poured out a bunch of shots and put them on a table. He did a quickfire One Direction quiz off the top of his head, a wrong answer earning a shot. Niall ended up downing three and the fan he was against did one.

“Nialler!” Louis laughed down the microphone. “How shameful!”

“Rigged!”

For Liam, Louis wanted to Google Image him and make him take a shot for every topless photo that came up, but he didn’t think it was fair that the audience wouldn’t be able to see the screen. Plus, Louis didn’t want to have to carry Liam to the medical centre. Instead, he gave them both a beer and got them both to tell a fact about themselves and the other had to say whether it was true or false. They kept going until one of them finished their beer (Liam) and Liam had ended up revealing to the fans that he once wet himself on stage and that he’d had sex to one of his own songs. 

“It’s your turn, Tommo!” Liam said down the microphone as Louis approached his fan and put his arm around her. “What drinking game should we give you? Hmm…”

“Ooh!” Harry squealed. “Can I do it?”

“We’re fucked, love,” Louis said to the fan, who giggled. “What’s your name?”

“Vicky.”

“Nice!” Louis turned to throw a look of warning to Harry. “Go easy on us, Haz.”

“After your little pronoun game?!” Harry scoffed.

“Why do I get the feeling you’ve already decided what to do?”

“Anyway!” Harry said. “Louis and Vicky are going to play ‘Never Have I Ever’. I’m gonna say ‘never have I ever done…’ something, and if you’ve done it, you take a drink.”

Louis sighed. “Beer, Harry. Beer.”

Harry smirked and fetched them both beers. When he approached, Louis lowered his microphone.

“Harry,” he said in warning. “Behave, okay?”

Harry smiled sweetly and Louis felt a sense of foreboding. He raised his eyebrows at Vicky and she giggled. She seemed terrified and pretty drunk already.

“Alright.” Harry cleared his throat. “Never Have I Ever… had sex with someone of the same gender.”

Louis took a swig, watching as Vicky did too. Louis reached out to clink their bottles together.

“Never have I ever… had a wee with the door open when other people are in the house.”

Liam and Niall both started complaining at the same time that Louis was guilty of that. Louis rolled his eyes and took a drink, as did Vicky.

“Long term relationships,” Vicky said with a shrug.

“Exactly!” Louis replied. “And I had a very long term relationship with these three.”

“Never have I ever… been walked in on during sex.”

Liam and Niall piped up again, complaining loudly.

“Oh, come on!” Louis said. “It’s all coming out, now.”

“Drink,” Harry prompted.

Louis took a drink as he turned to look out at the crowd. “Remember. What happens on the 1D cruise…  _ stays _ on the 1D cruise.”

Harry snorted in amusement, and Louis noticed that for the first time, Vicky didn’t drink.

“Never have I ever…” Harry paused to mull it over. “Intentionally stolen from a shop.”

Finally, something Louis wasn’t guilty of. He grinned at Vicky just before she shrugged and took a drink.

“Vicky!” Louis gasped in faux outrage. 

“Ooh!” Harry giggled. “Never have I ever been arrested.”

Louis took a swig and then inspected his bottle. Two-thirds gone. Vicky didn’t drink.

“So, you break the law but haven’t been caught.”

Vicky looked pleased with herself and Louis looked over at Harry who couldn’t stop smiling.

“Never have I ever… had sex on a cruise ship.”

Neither of them took a drink. Louis wondered if he was imagining Harry looking relieved. Did Harry actually expect that Louis would shag one of the waiters or something?

Well, it was only the second day.

“Never have I ever had sex with my ex.”

Louis looked at Vicky who was staring at him with wide, excited eyes. He slowly turned his head to stare at Harry pointedly.

“Really?” he said with the microphone pointed away.

Harry just nodded. Liam and Niall looked tense. Louis sighed, picking up his beer and downing the rest. The crowd roared with excitement, as if they’d just been let in on a secret. In some ways, they had.

“My beer is finished,” Louis said. “Can’t answer anymore. I lose.”

Louis’ head was spinning as they all moved around the stage, taking group and individual photos with all four of the fans. They were all sent back into the crowd with bottles of water and Louis grabbed one for himself as Harry took a beer that Juliana had fetched for him.

“You’re in trouble,” Louis told him.

“Sorry, Lou.” Harry grinned stupidly before turning tentative. “You’re not actually angry though? Are you?”

“No.” Louis sighed. “You’re still in trouble, though. As if you weren’t already in enough trouble for this outfit.”

“Is it making you want to touch me?”

“Shut up,” Louis murmured as Liam picked up a microphone.

“Okay then!” Liam said. “I hope you all enjoyed those games that clearly had an agenda. Have fun! Get drunk!”

-

Despite Louis saying he was going to bed after the drinking games, the four boys ended up in the nightclub on Deck 13. They were all pretty pissed and Harry had switched to soft drinks since he was planning to drive in the morning. It was probably the only straight-thinking he was capable of doing.

Liam was on the dance floor swaying back and forth, looking drunk and brooding. Louis smirked to himself as he got an orange juice. He too had decided to switch to non-alcoholic drinks and he definitely, definitely was going to bed. Soon. After this drink.

He turned around and saw Harry with Liam on the dance floor. Harry was draped on Liam, arms loose on his shoulders and body pressed close. Liam had his hands on Harry’s waist and even though he knew it was ridiculous, Louis felt a rush of jealousy. 

Harry saw Louis watching and started to move more sensually, snaking his hips and grinding on Liam, who was far too gone to really protest against Harry’s antics. Louis marched over, approaching the two of them and pressing against Harry from behind.

“Bit drunk, Haz?”

Harry looked over his shoulder. “Isn’t it such a shame that Liam’s not single?”

“Okay. You’re definitely pissed as a fart.” Louis grabbed Harry’s hips, digging his fingers in. “You trying to make me jealous with Liam? Really?”

Harry laughed softly. “Mm, and it’s working.”

Louis took a small step backwards, pulling Harry with him. Harry came easily, not even seeming to notice. Louis was struggling to keep his self-control. What he really wanted to do was hold Harry close, move both of them in time with the music and grind against him. He was starting to realise how drunk he was and now - with Harry arching his back and nestling his arse against Louis’ crotch - was probably the time to go to bed.

“I’m gonna head off,” Louis said in Harry’s ear. 

“Oh. Can I walk you back?”

Louis hesitated.  _ No, stay, have fun,  _ he was about to say, but the thought of leaving a drunk Harry here with Liam, as unresponsive as he was, filled him with dread. He hated himself for it, but he couldn’t help it.

“Sure.”

The now-familiar sound of Delroy and Miro’s gaits behind them was the only sound as they walked through the deserted ship. They’d somehow managed to slip out without gaining a tail and they got to their floor without much trouble. By the time they arrived at their guarded corridor, Louis was unbelievably tired.

“Thanks for walking me back. You going back?”

“Oh, no.” Harry shook his head. “I should get some sleep before tomorrow. Hope I’m sober enough to drive.”

“Reckon you’ll be fine.” Louis paused, folding his arms and taking one last look up and down Harry’s body. His gaze lingered on his obscene crotch, and wondered what it would look like if Harry got hard in this catsuit. “See you tomorrow?”

“Pick you up around ten?” Harry asked hopefully, smile bright.

Louis rolled his eyes. “Fine. Yes. Okay. I’ll come with you.”

“Yay!”

“We’re going for breakfast first, though. A big fucking breakfast.”

Harry nodded eagerly. He reached out and ran his hand over Louis’ palm. “Goodnight, love.”

-

Louis woke up to a persistent knocking on his door. He groaned loudly, rolling to the edge of the bed and slipping out to open the door, realising just in time that he was naked.

“Fuck,” he muttered, pulling the top sheet from the bed and wrapping it round his body. He checked the peephole to confirm it was Harry before he pulled open the door. “Hey. Sorry.”

“Good morning.” Harry stepped into Louis’ room, smirking as he looked him up and down. “We’re not driving all the way to Ancient Rome, Louis. No need to wear a toga.”

“Fuck off,” Louis murmured with a smile. “I just woke up. Apparently I slept naked.”

“Oh, right,” Harry said, staring at the sheet. “Well, get ready. I have to be back on board for 5pm so I can get ready for my little deck concert.”

“Oh, yeah. That’s today.”

“Yeah. Have to go and sing all my female pronouns.” Harry smiled sarcastically.

Louis tried to stifle a shy grin as he folded his arms, bunching up the sheet across his chest.

“Well, um… I’m gonna jump in the shower. Do you wanna come back in, like-”

“No, I’ll wait.” Harry kicked his shoes off and threw himself down onto the sofa, grabbing the TV remote. “Don’t be long.”

Louis showered as quickly as he could. He’d intended to shave today but he thought he’d forego it for now. He would need to shave later either way so he might as well wait until tonight. He was nursing a dull hangover and he hoped Harry wanted to take it easy today, something he found himself confident in when he emerged from the bathroom and saw Harry fast asleep, sitting up on the sofa.

Louis grinned as he quietly moved around the suite, gathering up clothes to wear. Harry stirred as Louis shut a drawer.

“Aren’t you ready yet?”

“I don’t fancy my chances in a car with you if you’re so tired.”

“I’m fine. I’ll drink a lot of coffee at breakfast.”

“Hm,” Louis hummed, unconvinced. He quickly got dressed and headed back out to sit next to Harry and pull his socks and shoes on. “So, is there a plan? Places you wanna visit?”

“I thought we could drive up the coast. It looks lovely. And there’s a national park so I thought we could get out and have a walk around.”

“Sounds good. You’re the boss.”

Harry smirked as he stood to his feet. “And don’t you forget it.”

-

After last night, Louis wondered if the two of them turning up to breakfast together was a bad idea. Still, they were bandmates. Friends. 

Exes. Who everybody now knew had slept together since they split up. It was well over a year since they’d last slept together but to the fans, it could’ve meant last week. Louis wasn’t one to air his dirty laundry in public but everybody was drunk and besides, Harry had taken it into his own hands.

Louis sat down to work his way through a pile of scrambled eggs and crispy bacon, gratefully sipping a cup of tea. Harry returned to the table carrying three plates and Louis shook his head, amused.

“Calm down, Haz.”

“I got you some pastries. Have you tried them? You’ll love them, Lou. I promise.”

“Alright, thanks. How very kind of you.”

“Well, I’m a nice person.” Harry raised his eyebrows before he started to shovel food into his mouth. 

Louis picked up a mini croissant and tore a chunk from it, watching Harry in his periphery. He couldn’t help but wonder what Christian would make of Harry’s drunken antics from last night. Publicly bringing up his and Louis’ sex life. Grinding on Liam to make Louis jealous. And now they were about to spend the day alone together. Louis felt a brief pang of guilt. He would never want to get in between two people in a relationship.

“What are the other two getting up to today?” Harry asked.

Louis snapped out of his contemplation. “Um, not sure. Sleeping off hangovers? I wonder how long they stayed out.”

Harry went back up three times to get more coffee, before the pair of them set off to debark the ship. They were happy to catch a tender to port with a handful of fans and when they hit land, Juliana was waiting with the keys to Harry’s hire car.

“Be back here by 4.45, or else.”

“Go have fun, Juliana!” Harry said brightly, snatching the keys from her. “See you in a few.”

“Louis?” she said. “No bodyguards?”

“You know, back home, I walk down the street all the time without a bodyguard.”

“But-”

“Juliana, we’re gonna be in a car most of the time. We can function as humans on our own, you know.”

Juliana sighed. “Be safe. Do not let Harry get the pair of you lost.”

“Hey! I can hear you, you know,” Harry complained.

-

Louis jerked awake just as Harry was pulling into a parking space. The sea was to their left, glittering in the weak autumn sun. 

“How long was I asleep?” Louis mumbled.

“Um… half an hour?” Harry switched the engine off and unbuckled his seatbelt. He turned to look at Louis. “I know it’s not that warm, but I thought maybe we could take a walk on the beach for a bit.”

“Yeah, sounds good.” Louis yawned, stretching. “Sorry I fell asleep.”

“That’s okay, love. You must be tired.”

Louis laid his head on the headrest, smiling softly at Harry before catching himself and unbuckling his seatbelt. He climbed out of the car and immediately put his sunglasses on. Even the weak sunlight was too strong for Louis’ poor, delicate head.

The beach wasn’t very busy, just a few locals out and about. Louis took his shoes and socks off, wanting to feel the sand and the sea on his feet. They walked along the surf next to each other, Harry’s hands in his pockets and Louis holding a shoe in each of his.

“I think this cruise is gonna have aged me ten years by the time we get home,” Harry said.

Louis turned his head and looked at Harry. Harry had that kind of face that if you looked at it one way, he looked younger than his years but other times, he looked older. Right now, he could be twenty three again, gearing up to release his first solo album. And then he turned to look back at Louis and smiled, the lines by his eyes and mouth deepening and the greying hair behind his ears peeking out.

“You can’t afford an extra ten years.” Louis smirked.

“Oi!” Harry said with a surprised laugh, removing a hand from his pocket to swat at Louis’ arm. “May I remind you, you’re older than me.”

“Two years is nothing when you get to our age.” Louis sighed, staring out to the sea. “Remember when the band first got together? We were sixteen and eighteen.”

“God, the age gap felt a mile wide.” Harry paused before grinning. “I was  _ kissing _ an eighteen year old. Touching an eighteen year old! I was cool.”

Louis laughed. “Yup. And now I just consider us the same age.”

“We’re old.” Harry pouted, slowing down as they approached a rocky section of the beach, separating the expanse of sand. He turned around and propped his bum on the damp rock. “Hey, how’s your family?”

“Oh, they’re doing great.”

“I’ve been keeping up with Lottie. In fact, I bumped into her a few months ago.”

“Really?” Louis asked in surprise. “She never told me.”

“Yeah, she was out in Australia promoting her new perfume? I was doing a show and we were in the same hotel.” Harry grinned. “She said she missed me.”

“Well,” Louis said with a sigh. “She always did like you more than I did.”

“Shut up!” Harry shook his head, smiling. “I mean, she did love me a lot.”

Louis sat down on the damp beach, absently scraping a hole in the sand between his legs. He could feel Harry watching him.

“I loved you a lot, too,” Louis said, not sure if Harry could even hear him. 

Why was he saying this, anyway? He felt like something had changed between them and honesty just kept spilling out of his mouth. Being alone with Harry in a social setting - for the first time in a long time - felt so right and he hated it. He glanced up at Harry and smiled apologetically.

“Hey,” Harry said softly. “Shall we walk back up to the car? Drive up a bit further and see if we can’t find somewhere to have some lunch?”

Harry stood up, holding his hands out to help Louis up. Louis took his hands, letting Harry pull him up, and took a second too long to pull away. He brushed the sand from his arse and they turned to walk back to the car.

It was a bit of an awkward stroll, but regardless, it felt nice to walk next to Harry. Louis had both his shoes in one hand and his free hand was twitching to reach out and take Harry’s. This wasn’t good. He switched one shoe into his free hand.

“Would you really have come out here on your own?”

“Yeah.” Harry nodded. “But, you know me. I would probably have driven for hours, stopped off for ten minutes and then had to turn around and come back to make it in time.”

The awkward tension started to fade and by the time they reached the car, the two of them were reminiscing and giggling.

“Okay, but do you remember when Niall caddied for Rory and fell over?”

“Do I remember?” Harry asked, swiping at his eyes, crying from laughter. “You teased him for about a year.”

“It wasn’t as bad as when he did his first solo arena tour and he tumbled off stage.”

Harry took deep breaths, trying to steady himself as he fastened his seatbelt. “That’s not funny! They thought he broke his arm.”

“It’s very funny, and we can laugh about it because he  _ didn’t _ break his arm.”

They drove beside the coast, looking for somewhere to eat. Harry decided they’d probably be better off going slightly in-land and so he turned right and they found themselves driving up a hill. Harry hummed disapprovingly.

“Uh, we’re going a bit far off track, here.”

“We’ve got hours, don’t panic.” Louis grinned at Harry. “I won’t let you get back late.”

“Oh,  _ you _ won’t let me?” Harry laughed. 

“The only reason I came along is because I didn’t trust you to get yourself back on time.” Louis shrugged. “Juliana begged me to.”

“Whatever,” Harry said, trying not to smile. “Oh, look! Here’s a supermarket. Should we just pick up some bits and bobs and find somewhere to park up to eat? I don’t think we’ll come across anywhere else out here.”

“Sure.”

They stopped at the side of the road and quickly headed into the supermarket. It was a couple of degrees cooler than it was outside and Louis shivered in surprise at the temperature change. They gathered up snacks and drinks - neither were especially hungry after such a large breakfast - and Harry insisted on paying. It was a gesture, and it made Louis smile. 

They returned to the car, Louis carrying the bag of snacks. He couldn’t help but think about how comfortable he felt in Harry’s company, especially these days. It was starting to feel like old times, and that felt dangerous to Louis. 

“I’m so excited for the party tonight,” Harry said as they pulled away from the curb and continued to drive uphill. “The fans are gonna go crazy.”

“It is weird that I’m a bit nervous?” Louis laughed. “I’m excited, too, but I just…”

“God, you are gonna look  _ fucking _ amazing.”

Louis laughed again. “I hope so.”

A few minutes later, Harry parked up at the peak of a hill. They got out, walked over to a grassy edge and sat down, snacks in tow.

“Look at this view!” Harry sighed, smiling at Louis. “This is exactly the kind of thing I wanted to see out here.”

“Well, I’m glad,” Louis said.

They sat quietly as they tucked into some crisps and pastries. Louis took a swig from the bottle of orange juice before passing it to Harry, and God, it felt so domestic. Louis didn’t stare at the way Harry’s mouth wrapped around the wide rim of the juice bottle. He didn’t.

“Remember those days when you couldn’t just go and hang out in public? Someone would always recognise you.”

“Yeah,” Louis replied. “And back in those days, me and you would never have been allowed to be seen getting off the ship together, let alone drive off in a car together.”

Harry sighed loudly, turning to look at Louis. Without warning, he stuck his arms out and wrapped them around Louis. Louis smiled to himself, grabbing hold of Harry’s arm and instinctively, he leaned into his touch.

“What’s that for?” he asked quietly.

“Everything,” Harry murmured. 

“Oh, Haz.” Louis closed his eyes. “We’ve been through so much together, haven’t we?”

_ “So _ much, Lou.” Harry pressed his lips to Louis’ neck. They stayed like that for a few minutes before Harry eventually pulled away and took a quick swipe at his eyes. “Um… how are we doing for time?”

“We have like… half hour before we should start making our way back. Just to be on the safe side.”

“Okay, Harry said quietly. “Fancy going for a walk?”

Louis nodded and Harry stood to his feet. He held a hand out to Louis to help him up and when they were both standing, he didn’t let go. As they walked down the hill, hand in hand, thoughts were screaming through Louis’ head.  _ We’re holding hands. What does this mean?  _

_ He has a boyfriend. _

Still, Louis couldn’t bring himself to drop Harry’s hand. It wasn’t as if they were snogging, or anything. He felt prickles of guilt, though. Their linked hands felt like some kind of symbol. It felt intimate. 

They made small talk as they descended the hill, strolling over to a small lake. Louis could feel that his hand was sweating but Harry didn’t seem to mind, if he even noticed. 

“It’s so peaceful here.” Harry looked around and sighed. “I wish we had more time.”

“Me, too.”

They finally broke hands as they walked back up the hill, returning to the car and silently fastening their seatbelts. The drive back to Livorno port was fairly straightforward with the aid of the Sat Nav. Louis texted Juliana to let her know they were on their way back so she could collect the car and take it back, and when he’d done that he leaned back on the headrest, watching Harry.

He was staring out at the road, pouting slightly and tapping a finger on the steering wheel in time to the music on the radio. There wasn’t an inch of his face that wasn’t beautiful. The curve of his nose, which wrinkled up as he sniffed. The way his eyes quickly flickered up and back down as they passed a road sign. The gorgeous way he chewed his lip slightly as he made a turn. Every feature and quirk of Harry’s face held precious memories for Louis.

“Stop staring at me,” Harry said, smirking slightly. “It’s creepy.”

“Oh, um-”

“It’s not fair. I can’t stare back.”

A warm flush coursed through Louis and he tried to dampen his smile somewhat. He turned to stare out of the window and ten minutes later they arrived back at the port. The boys got out and Harry chucked the keys at Juliana.

“Thanks,” Harry said.

Juliana looked at her watch. “4.30. Impressive. Thank you, Louis.”

Harry scoffed loudly as Louis laughed. 

-

Louis entered his suite and immediately, he missed Harry. The room felt quiet, and big, and lonely. He sighed, throwing himself down on the sofa and turning the TV on. He flicked through the deck cam channel, some Italian channel, and the 1D channel.

“Ugh.” He cringed as the TV played the You & I video, just a small snippet of the countless music videos, interviews and candid clips that looped on the channel. He switched the TV off, throwing the remote control down on the sofa and stared into space, listening to the deafening silence. He didn’t know what to do with himself, and he knew that if he sat here doing nothing, he would start thinking and he certainly didn’t want to do that.

It occurred to him that he had a lot of shaving to do before the party tonight, and so he headed into the bathroom to start the process. 

An hour later, Louis came out the bathroom, not bothering to put any clothes on. He felt much better, having washed the day and his reservations off of his skin. He was looking forward to a couple of hours to do his own thing before he had to head to tonight’s concert. He wondered if he should Facetime Lottie, but that would require putting clothes on, or at least a t-shirt.

He grabbed the remote and he switched the TV on, the deck cam channel flicking on and immediately he froze. 

It wasn’t the best picture in the world and it was a fairly wide shot, but he was watching Harry’s solo concert. Something about it made his heart climb up into his throat. He sounded wonderful and Louis refused to take his eyes off the screen as he settled down on the sofa. His stomach flip-flopped and he felt the odd urge to cry. 

He sat there, watching the whole hour and barely moving. When it came to an end, Louis clapped, there in his room, alone and naked. He sniffed, moving to the bed and grabbed his phone from the night stand.

_ ‘Watched you on the deck cam! Well done, love. You’ve still got it! X’ _

Louis’ day had been  _ Harry Harry Harry _ and he’d enjoyed every second of it. The recent memories joined years and years of old memories in his mind, and Louis found himself reminiscing about the time when they’d… _ reconnected. _ They’d bumped into each other at the press night of a new musical. They’d both been invited by their mutual friend James Corden and they’d wound each other up to breaking point, and their breaking point ended up being a blow job in the toilets. They basically slept together on and off between then and when Harry decided to end it to get serious with Christian. 

Louis’ hand had found its way to his cock and he sighed, closing his eyes as he dragged his hand over it. The way Harry had sucked him off that night was so obscene, so delicious and Louis felt desperate with need. He battled against his morals as he tugged at his cock, imagining fucking Harry on the balcony. He wanted it, so badly, and he forgot about Christian and sense and in the fog of arousal, he decided he needed to get Harry back to his room and get him naked. He finally came, spurting onto his own stomach and he cried out loudly, wondering all the while if Harry was back in his room or not.

As Louis climbed to shaky feet to head into the bathroom and clean up, the guilt and shame washed over him.  _ Of course _ he wouldn’t encourage Harry to cheat. Hand-holding was as far as it had gone and that was as far as Louis intended it to go. His dick was in no way more important than Harry’s happiness and future.

-

Not being able to face the dining room or the buffet, Louis ordered room service. He ate on his own, although Liam stopped by to say hi and told Louis that he’d been in Florence for the day and a bird had pooed on him and that was good luck, right?

When Louis finished his dinner, he brushed his teeth and headed to the backstage area of the performance lounge. He was a little early so he and Delroy took a long route, walking out on deck and watching as the ship started to pull away from the Italian coast. 

“What did you get up to today, then?” Louis asked Delroy.

“I stayed in my room and worried about you.”

“Shut up!” Louis laughed before frowning. “You didn’t, did you?”

“Nah. I popped off the boat to visit Pisa. That tower’s a bit crooked, isn’t it?”

Louis grinned. “Well, good. I’m glad you went out and had fun.”

“It was very short lived. Not much in Pisa, as it happens.”

They arrived backstage and Louis was the first one there. He sat on a sofa next to Delroy and draped his legs over his disgruntled bodyguard’s lap. As he pulled his phone out, he received a text.

_ ‘Thank you Lou. Means a lot that you were watching. See you in a bit for the concert! :) Can’t wait x’ _

Louis sighed, throwing his phone down on the sofa forcefully, which startled Delroy, who had fallen asleep. Louis smiled apologetically as there was a ruckus just outside the door.

“Hey!” Liam said, ambling into the room. “You the only one here?”

“Yep. Juliana’s not even here.”

“Maybe she missed the boat!” Liam said, eyes lighting up.

“Oi!” Juliana walked through the open door behind Liam. “How dare you.”

“Aw, I didn’t mean it.” Liam gave her a hug, squeezing as he kissed her on the cheek.

“Stop, please.” Louis held his stomach. “This flirting is sickening.”

Juliana and Liam both pulled disgusted faces. Not long after, Niall and Harry had turned up and they did a quick run through of some songs before the doors opened. Harry was excused since he had just finished his own solo hour, taking part in blocking but no vocals. Afterwards, the boys headed backstage to relax for a bit and warm up.

“I’m knackered, to be honest,” Louis told Harry. “Are you alright? I didn’t have a nap but I did at least relax.”

“I’m so glad it’s a sea day tomorrow,” Harry replied. “No way I’m staying out late tonight.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Louis laughed. “You always say that.”

“I’m exhausted! I’m not as young as I used to be.”

“If you go to bed too early, I’m gonna yell at you over the PA system like you did on the first night.”

Harry pouted, amused. “Yeah, fair point.”

“I mean, you could always nap after this, before the party. You don’t have a super complex costume for tonight.”

“Maybe,” Harry said. “I kind of want to watch you get ready.”

“Oh, no! You’re not seeing me until the big reveal.”

“Ha!” Harry laughed. “Like the bride at a wedding?”

The air in the room fell flat and Louis immediately buried his nose in his phone. As comfortable as they’d become around each other the last few days, there were so many things that could hit a nerve and weddings certainly fit the bill. They were going to get married. Would Harry marry Christian?

Louis very much hoped not, as selfish as it was. 

The concert went well. The setlist was voted for by the fans and it went down a storm. After they came off stage, Harry no longer seemed tired. He was buzzing. He always was when he would come off stage. Louis made a quick exit, heading back to his room to get ready for the Halloween Party.

-

The day they’d had a board meeting about theme nights and their Halloween costumes were decided, everybody was excited. Harry was the most excited, but that was probably because he’d fought to get Louis a better costume.

“Look, let’s face it,” Harry had said. “Putting Louis in an old man costume is a bloody waste. He should be Veronica.”

“So, it’s okay to put me in an old man costume, yeah?” Niall argued.

“No offence,” Harry replied. “But Louis would make a much sexier woman.”

And so, here he was, sitting in a bra and knickers and a wig cap, with Juliana doing his make up.

“You really should’ve got dressed first.”

“I’m not sitting here for an hour in a bloody pencil skirt.”

“Hm. Fair.”

They weren’t going quite as extreme as they had back when they shot the Best Song Ever video - Niall point blank refused to wear prosthetics from the word go - but they tried to go to some kind of effort to replicate the effect. They were all a decade older, though, so it might be an uphill struggle.

“God, I tell you what. This brings back memories.”

Juliana raised an eyebrow as she rifled through her make-up bag. “Oh?”

“Yeah, my sister is a makeup artist. She was on tour with us for a bit and during down time she used to put makeup on us all the time. Harry loved it.”

“I bet he did,” Juliana said with a sigh. “Alright, I’m going to do your eyeliner, but you have to be really still. Okay?”

-

Louis looked at himself in the mirror and,  _ damn.  _ It wasn’t like women were at all his thing, but he reckoned he looked pretty attractive. Sexy, even. And all he could think about was what Harry’s reaction was going to be.

“Ready to go?” Juliana asked. 

“Yup.” Louis bent down with some difficulty and picked up his heels. “Let’s go.”

They all gathered in Liam’s room. They wouldn’t head out to the deck for the party until the last minute, just to save the surprise being ruined. Louis walked into Liam’s room to see him sitting at the desk, eating a salad in his jean shorts.

“Hello, Leeroy.” Louis smacked Liam on the arm. “You’re eating this late?”

“I ate a lot in port.” Liam stopped and turned to look at Louis. “Wow. Impressive.”

Louis let out a small laugh, flicking the long hair of his wig over his shoulder. “Yeah, well. I look good in anything. I think this proves it.”

Liam scoffed. “Still not as sexy as Zayn, though.”

“Ew.” Louis frowned, just as Niall walked in.

Louis’ frown grew deeper. Niall didn’t look as good without all the prosthetics covering his face. Still, he was wearing the wig and had grown out a slight amount of facial hair, which counted for something, Louis supposed. He was wearing the fake belly underneath his suit, too, so at the very least he didn’t really look like himself.

“I proper drew the short straw here,” Niall complained. “I’ve got to  _ party _ all night like this?!”

“Just stay in it for an hour or so, please,” Juliana said, sounding exasperated.

“I can change?” Niall asked brightly. “Yes!”

“Of course. I’m not a monster. You too, Louis. Liam, you and Harry can stay in your costumes all night.”

“Aw, but-”

“Excuse me,” Louis said to Liam, reaching into his shirt and adjusting his bra strap. “You’re in normal clothes.”

Liam looked at him like he’d lost the plot as he slipped his pink headband over his blonde wig. Niall plopped down onto the sofa and scratched at his head through his wig.

“Where  _ is _ Harry?” he asked, turning to look at Louis.

“How should I know?” Louis shrugged, shooting daggers at Niall.

Juliana sighed, and Louis reckoned she regretted agreeing to do this cruise. “I’ll go and find him.”

Louis approached the mirror and checked himself out. The glasses to complete the outfit were hooked on his skirt waistband and he freed them, pushing them onto his face. He pulled his phone out of his bra to check his messages just as Juliana returned with Harry.

Louis couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face. Harry’s hair was blow-dried straight and pushed back, big, taped up glasses sitting across the bridge of his nose. He smiled around at everybody before his eyes met Louis’.

A small, slow smirk appeared on his face as his eyes dragged down Louis’ body, then back up. Ignoring everybody else’s greetings, he walked over to stand next to Louis and met his eyes in the mirror.

“Definitely better than a hairy, balding, middle-aged man.” Harry grinned, staring at Louis’ cleavage. 

“My eyes are up here, Harry.”

“I was just wondering about your… is that your chest?”

“Juliana put this weird stick-on bra thing on me that creates cleavage. Isn’t it great?”

Harry tilted his head, lifting his glasses and squinting. “Yeah.”

“Right, are we going, or what?” Juliana asked.

-

Louis couldn’t stop looking at Harry. It was so weird to see him dressed as Marcel again. He looked just as good as he had back in 2013 and Louis wanted to touch him. Harry kept looking at him too, grinning as Louis put on his heels and attempted to walk.

“Say cheese, lads!” Niall snapped a photo of Harry and Louis in their costumes. “Ah, sick! Mate, I’m gonna send it to Christian. Wait until he sees you dressed like this!”

“No.” Harry frowned. “Don’t. Don’t send him anything, I’ll send him a photo later.”

Niall looked at him like he’d lost the plot and shrugged his shoulders. He continued to take photos, turning his attention away from Harry and Louis and he started to bark poses for Liam to do for the camera.

“I’m a bit worried,” Louis confessed to Harry as they waited to be brought out onto the deck stage.

“Why? Worried you’re gonna fall over?”

Louis shot him a glare. “No. I’m kind of worried that when I come out, everybody will get excited thinking I’m Zayn.”

Harry rolled his eyes exaggeratedly. “Really, Lou?”

“Come on, you know what the fans are like.”

“Juliana,” Harry said. “You’re introducing us, right?”

“Yeah. I’ll sort it.”

She left not long later and one by one, she introduced them and they ran out to the stage.

_ “And last but not least… Louis Tomlinson is… Veronica!” _

The screech of the crowd was inhuman and Louis managed to climb the few stairs onto the stage - with the help of Delroy - without falling. The fans had never been louder than they were at this moment and Louis and Harry shared a grin.

They didn’t have time to relax, because they’d foolishly agreed to perform their little dance routine from Best Song Ever. They’d rehearsed for three hours before they all got it right which had been painful, physically and mentally.

The music started up and Harry moved immediately to Louis, grabbing his hands to dance with him. He spun him around and placed his hands on Louis’ hips.

“Your arse looks incredible in this tight skirt.”

Louis scoffed. “Very bold, Marcel.”

“Are you accusing me of being out of character?”

“Definitely. Now, get off me.” Louis turned around and pushed him away. “Get into position.”

When the final chorus came around, they stood in line and performed their dance routine. Louis found it insanely hard in heels and a tight pencil skirt and when it came to the final move of dropping down onto one knee, he fell sideways into Liam who fell into Harry.

“Fuck!” Louis shouted, breaking down in a fit of giggles. 

The three of them scrambled to their feet, Niall folding his arms and he shook his head.

“You lot are the worst.”

The party continued like all the others. Niall started spraying and pouring alcohol into people’s mouths and Liam went to stand with the DJ, chattering away and demanding songs.

Louis immediately moved into the crowd and found Harry behind him. They posed for photos, Louis draping himself over Harry and pouting seductively. They drifted apart and Louis took about seven thousand selfies with fans before he broke away to have a drink. He headed up to the stage and stood with Liam. The DJ had disappeared and Liam was in control.

“Did you murder the poor lad who was here before?”

“He’s gone on his break. Did you know he was here for over two hours before we got here? Anyway he queued a few songs but he let me take over.”

“So, basically, you’re standing there and pretending to do stuff.”

Liam seemed to slip into character, pouting slightly and putting his hand on a popped hip.

“Erm, excuse me. I’m doing plenty.”

Louis laughed, rolling his eyes. He was about to retaliate but the opening of the next song caught his attention. He felt the entire crowd turn to look at him.

“Yes!” he cried out. “Li, did you put this on?”

“Nope, the DJ did.”

Back To You boomed around the deck and Louis sang along as Bebe started to sing. The fans were singing along loudly and fuck, Louis had missed being in front of a crowd, singing his songs back to him. He and the boys would have to reunite to do more concerts, now that he’d got a taste for it again. As he looked out into the crowd he saw Harry over at the back, watching him with a grin on his face.

-

Louis was pissed. He’d taken his heels off - walking around a moving ship on heels was hard enough without being so drunk - and his wig had fallen off twice. He should go and get changed, Juliana had said he could, after all. But as uncomfortable as he was, there was something he was kind of enjoying about being in a bra and a skirt. 

He’d already dirty danced with a very emotionally confused Niall up in the nightclub and as he walked out to find a smoking area, he bumped into Harry.

“Hello.” Harry looked warm. He was still wearing his entire costume, although his hair was starting to flop down into his eyes. “Where you off to?”

“Having a fag then I think I need to go and change. Put on some trackies and make the most of having my mobility back. If I ever put a skirt on again, remind me not to put on a pencil skirt.”

Harry smirked. “When you next wear a skirt, I’ll definitely remind you.”

Louis didn’t know why he’d said that. In his alcohol-riddled brain he tried to think up a situation in which he’d be putting on a skirt and Harry would be giving him advice. 

Harry walked him to a smoking area, which was deserted. Harry leaned in close, the smell of wine on his breath.

“You know, you in that costume is… confusing to me, to say the least.”

“Why’s that?” Louis asked, feigning ignorance as he leaned against the railing with his arse popped out as much as he could manage. He stared out at the dark sea and tried to stifle a smirk.

Harry let out a quiet groan. “I don’t understand how you as a woman is turning me on so much.”

Louis looked over his shoulder at Harry who was staring at his arse. Louis turned over, leaned back against the railing and smirked at Harry, whose eyes darted up to Louis’.

“Well, maybe…” Louis said quietly. “Maybe me in  _ any _ form would turn you on.”

Harry’s lips parted as if he needed the extra air. “I think that’s it, yeah.”

Louis’ dick was tucked away to prevent anything poking through his skirt but it gave a small twitch just from the way Harry was looking at him, practically devouring him with his eyes. He turned away, pulling a cigarette and lighter from his bra.

“Women really do keep their stuff in their bra, then?” Harry asked.

“Well, I don’t have any boobs in it, do I?” Louis rolled his eyes as he lit his cigarette. “There’s space between the two bra things.”

Harry looked confused but he just shrugged. “So, what are you doing after you change? Going back to the club?”

“Not sure. Maybe. Or maybe wander around a bit and meet some fans.”

“It’s great, isn’t it? Getting to meet so many of the fans. Like a thank you for everything.”

“Yeah, but don’t you feel a bit weird seeing getting to meet you as a thank you?” Louis smirked. “Bit arrogant, Harry.”

“Oh, shut up.” Harry grinned. “You know what I mean.”

“We have the second meet and greet tomorrow. God, I love meeting them but the meet and greet is tedious.”

“But at least it’s a sea day.” Harry yawned. “I’m gonna sleep as late as Juliana will let me.”

“Then the day after, we get off.” Louis stubbed out his cigarette. “Can you believe it? It feels like it’s been ages but at the same time, it feels like it’s been no time at all.”

Harry nodded and looked at Louis. He looked back and they shared a smile before Louis turned away, heading inside.

“Right,” he said with a sigh. “Just popping downstairs to change.”

Harry said nothing, but he followed Louis inside and to the bar. Louis got them both a drink and he headed to the lift, Harry trailing after him.

“You know what I was thinking earlier?” Harry said, facing Louis and walking backwards to the alarm of Miro, who was a respectable distance behind Harry and Louis, along with Delroy. “We haven’t played nearly enough pranks on the other two.”

Louis grinned widely. “Don’t you think we’re a bit too old for that?”

Even as he said it, he wasn’t being sincere and he knew that Harry wouldn’t believe him. Harry laughed loudly, shaking his head in disbelief.

“Absolutely not. Do you think we could get in their rooms now?”

“No, love. Unless you climbed over the balcony which I really don’t want you to do. Wait until we’re home and you can play pranks on them then.”

“Will you help?”

“Yes, fine.”

Harry cackled loudly, sipping on some pink cocktail he’d ordered. They reached the lifts and Louis hit the button.

“I’m really sad you’re taking it off,” Harry said with a pout, eyeing Louis up and down. “What a shame.”

Louis scoffed as they got into the lift. “Well, this bra is digging in my back. It’s annoying.”

“Hm.” Harry leaned against the back wall of the lift and put his straw between his teeth. “I would have loved to explore my confused feelings towards this outfit as a concept.”

“What  _ are _ you talking about?”

Harry licked his lips, a wicked look in his eyes. His hand slowly reached towards Louis and cupped his breast.

“Mm. See, this is doing things to me.” Harry squeezed gently. Louis didn’t really feel much, just a slight rubbing near his nipple. “Fuck.”

Louis looked at the bodyguards. They were both staring ahead of them, pointedly ignoring what was going on. Louis smiled. He took hold of Harry’s hand and moved it upwards, grazing Harry’s fingertip along the line of his cleavage. Weirdly enough, Louis felt a rush from it.

“My dick is so confused,” Harry whined quietly. Louis realised they’d moved closer to each other. He could smell the sickly sweet cocktail on Harry’s breath and he wanted to taste it. He closed his eyes, barely feeling the fingers slide to the back of his neck and then Harry’s mouth was on his, slowly kissing him. Louis felt his soul go up in flames, want and tension coming to a head and as Harry slipped his tongue inside Louis’ mouth, Louis found himself gurgling out a moan. He’d wanted this for so long. He couldn’t remember why they hadn’t done this sooner. Until he did.

He pushed Harry away and clutched at his forehead. He felt his wig shift slightly.

“Harry, oh my God! What the fuck.” Louis felt trapped. Was the lift stuck? Had less time passed than he thought? “You’ve got a fucking boyfriend.”

Harry sighed deeply, furrowing his brow and closing his eyes. “Louis-”

“I can’t believe you. I can’t  _ believe _ you!” The doors opened and Louis stormed out. He marched towards their corridor, thinking of nothing but  _ he’s got a fucking boyfriend  _ and  _ I need to get to my fucking room. _

“Lou!” Harry called out, speed-walking to catch up. “Please.”

Louis reached his room and quickly swiped his card at the door and pushed it open. “Goodnight, Harry.”

“But-”

Louis slammed the door in his face and moved straight to the bed, throwing himself down on it and finally, he let the tears fall. He laid there sobbing for God knows how long, and when he finally stood up, he found himself in front of the mirror. His makeup was smudged and his wig askew, and all he wanted to do was get this fucking costume off. He yanked the wig off and threw it in the corner, pulling his earrings off and he tore off the shirt. He kept going until he was completely naked, wearing only a wig cap and make-up.

“You’re a fucking idiot,” he murmured to his reflection. “Do  _ not _ be the other man. Don’t settle for that.”

His reflection just stared back at him, face blotchy and all in all, looking a little worse for wear. Louis sighed, moving away, and set about finding some sweats. He pulled a t-shirt and some joggers on and found some make-up wipes on the desk that Juliana had left for him. He sent an internal thank you to her and set about de-Veronicaing himself.

He stared into his own eyes in the reflection as he wiped over his face. Back when they first split up, Louis had suspicions that Harry had been unfaithful. When he’d confronted him, Harry had been livid at the mere suggestion that he’d cheated. Yet here Louis was, the other man. And Harry was the love of his life.

He started to quietly sob again. How did he get here? He and Harry had been doing so well, but maybe Harry had been trying to win Louis’ trust so he could be his bit on the side. What a sleaze.

Even as he thought it, he knew it wasn’t right. Harry wasn’t a sleaze. Harry wouldn’t do this. Except… he had. Louis scoffed, anger washing over him afresh. He jumped to his feet and stormed to the door. He was fixing to give Harry a piece of his mind and as he yanked open his door, Harry fell backwards into the room.

“Oh! Hi.” Harry scrambled to his feet and stood awkwardly in the doorway.

“You’re fucking out of order.” Louis started. “How the fuck could you do this? Not only to Christian, but to me?”

“Louis.”

“It’s disgusting. I’m so grossed out.”

“Louis!” Harry shouted. “Can I just say  _ something?” _

Louis stared at him before shrugging. “Go on, then.”

Harry’s bottom lip wobbled slightly. “Will you at least let me explain myself?”

“Go for it, Harry. I’d love to hear it.”

“Can I come in?” Harry asked. “Please.”

Louis sighed, stepping aside. Harry walked in and sat tensely on the edge of the bed. Louis closed the door and folded his arms.

“Go on, then.”

Harry stared at the floor. His hair was all over the place but he was still wearing his glasses. He looked so… cute. Louis hated it. It was so deceiving.

“Um… Okay, look. I told you once I wasn’t a cheat and I fucking meant it, Lou.” He took a deep breath. “Christian and I broke up, like, a month ago.”

Louis raised an eyebrow, curious. If that was true, how come nobody knew? It didn’t occur to Louis that Harry might be lying, but he was confused. Harry took another deep breath.

“I’m sorry. I should’ve told you. And I really, really wish I had. But I didn’t tell anyone. Niall and Liam don’t know. My mum doesn’t know.”

“Does Christian know?” Louis said weakly, a poor attempt at humour.

“Louis, I would never cheat on anyone. Not even when you’re the temptation.”

“Why didn’t you tell anyone?”

Harry paused to untie his smart, brown shoes, kicking them off before shuffling back on the bed so he could cross his legs under himself.

“We’d been having problems for months. I never wanted to admit it, even to myself. I was so bloody confused. It didn’t feel right and we tried to push through it but it just wasn’t working.”

Louis believed him. Of course he did. His anger melted away and he approached the bed, sitting next to Harry.

“We’re your…” Louis paused to frown. “The lads are your brothers. And I’m… well, it’s me. You could’ve told us, Harry.”

“I know. I’m sorry.” 

Louis sighed. “I’m so sorry you two split up. You seemed happy.”

“We were. For a bit.” Harry turned to look at Louis and smiled sadly. “Just wasn’t meant to be.”

Louis offered his hand and Harry slid his own into it, linking their fingers together. Harry had been single this whole time. Louis thought back over the past few days. Maybe Harry hadn’t handled the situation too well, but if only Louis had known. Harry was staring down at the floor and for the first time, Louis noticed he’d been crying.

“Are we okay?” Harry whispered.

“Of course we are.” Louis brought Harry’s hand up to his lips and planted a kiss on it. 

Harry huffed and laid his head on Louis’ shoulder. Harry’s hair smelt startlingly familiar and something about that made him want to start crying all over again. He didn’t want to ask, but he wondered if Harry was hurting. He wrapped his arms around him and held him tight, just in case. He planted a kiss to the top of Harry’s head and heard a quiet sniffle.

“Please don’t tell the others,” Harry said quietly. “I’d like to tell them in my own time.”

“Yeah, love. Whatever you want.”

Harry lifted his head, his face two inches from Louis’. Louis turned his head slightly and Harry placed a gentle, tiny kiss to his cheek, then his lips. 

Louis closed his eyes. They continued to kiss, soft little comforting pecks that only two people who knew each other better than anything in the world could share. Someone was crying and Louis could taste salty tears but their kisses became deeper and deeper and before Louis even realised, they were laying side by side on the bed. Louis rolled on top of Harry, straddling his hips and pulling away to look down at him.

“Is this okay?” Louis asked. “Are… you okay?”

Harry nodded slowly. “I’m okay, Louis. I just need you.”

“Okay,” Louis whispered.

He slipped Harry’s Marcel glasses off and tossed them carefully onto a chair. Back in 2013 when they made the video, back when Marcel was born, the two of them used to roleplay all the time, Harry playing a shy, virgin Marcel. They’d been so carefree, but things had changed. Now, the situation felt delicate and the air felt charged and Louis saw only Harry beneath him. His Harry.

Louis stripped them both and when he pushed into Harry, it felt like coming home, after all this time. It was like he’d been holding his breath for the last year and a half, suffocating until now, and he could finally breathe again. He held Harry close as he spooned him, fucking him deep until he cried all over again and their hands clutched at each other until their knuckles turned white. Afterwards, Louis cleaned them both up and they slept in each other’s arms, Louis hardly daring to believe where the night ended up taking him.

-

Banging headache. That was the first thing that hit Louis as he stirred into consciousness in the morning. The second thing was that Harry’s naked body was pressed to his front and as sweaty and gross as he felt, he smiled as he opened his eyes, sighing contentedly.

“Morning,” Harry whispered upon hearing Louis stir.

“Hi.” Louis wriggled back slightly and Harry flipped over to face him. “It’s been a long time since I woke up next to you.”

“Mm, too long.” Harry yawned, stretching before cuddling back down and moving closer to Louis. “What’s the time?”

Louis checked his phone, not even glancing at all the messages on it. “Nine-thirty.”

“Fuck, we need to get up soon. Meet and greet starts at 11. We need to be there in an hour.”

“I’m gonna order us some room service breakfast.” Louis pulled himself up to a seating position. “Maybe I’d better text Juliana, too. Just in case-”

Louis stopped dead and several things happened at once. There was a knock at the door, followed immediately by the door being pushed open. Juliana marched in, followed by a gobsmacked Niall and Liam.

“Oh, God!” Niall yelled. “What the fuck do we have here, then?”

Harry pulled the blankets up over his head and Louis frowned, irritated.

“What the bloody hell is the point of knocking if you’re gonna come in anyway?” he shouted. “I could’ve been having a wank.”

“You two could’ve been at it!” Niall helpfully added.

Louis levelled him with a glare. “Exactly. Now, kindly get out, all of you. We will see you at the meet and greet at half ten.”

Juliana was still staring at the mound that was Harry under the blankets. “I’m sorry, Louis. I-”

“Don’t you ever burst into my room like that again,” Louis said. “Out!”

Louis tried to fix his face with a stony glare, but Harry had started to stroke his thigh under the blanket. As the three intruders shuffled out, shutting the door behind them, Louis let out a sigh.

“Fuckers.”

“If we hadn’t been so drunk and distracted, we’d have thought to double lock the door.”

“I hate that Juliana has access to all of our rooms. It feels like an invasion of privacy.”

Harry kissed Louis on the cheek. “You were so tough, babe,” he whispered.

“Stop.” Louis grinned, picking up the phone. “Go and shower.”

-

They were quiet over breakfast, sitting cross-legged on Louis’ unmade bed. He’d just ordered them coffee and pastries. They could fetch some lunch after the meet and greet.

“So, um.” Louis cleared his throat and sipped some coffee. “When we get home… does this mean I can call you? You know, if I’m feeling… you know.” he grinned, shrugging.

Harry looked up at him, and his eyebrows twitched. He pouted and looked back down at his plate of pastries, poking at a danish.

“Um… yeah. I suppose so.” Harry fixed a smile on his face and looked up. “Of course. We’re both single. We used to have a lot of fun.”

Louis smiled broadly. “That’s great. I’m really glad.”

They finished their breakfast in silence and Harry returned to his own room to get dressed and brush his teeth. At just before ten thirty, they headed off, clad in their captain’s outfits. They arrived a few minutes late but nobody said anything to them, everyone a bit awkward after this morning’s antics.

“So,” Juliana said with a sigh. “After this, quick lunch break and then Louis has his solo performance.”

Louis had actually forgotten. Well, at least he was no longer tense. 

“And then,” she continued. “We have the Q&A up on the main deck. That’ll take about an hour, and then Niall has his performance. After that, we have the second concert. Then, Prom Night.”

Louis didn’t know why they’d insisted on a Prom Night. It seemed a bit weird, and it meant he had to wear a suit all night. Still, it wasn’t about him, it was about the fans, blah blah blah. He did love them but this cruise was exhausting. In the best possible way.

Louis thought back to when Niall had first pleaded with him to agree to do the cruise. Louis had been so reluctant, but he felt like it had practically changed his life how he knew it.

-

They were halfway through the meet and greet and the boys were taking a ten minute break. They were in a lounge with the tables and chairs pushed out of the way, and Louis found a booth and laid upside down in it, head hanging over the edge of the seat.

“You can’t be comfortable like that,” Harry said, grinning as he slid in the booth, opposite Louis. 

“I’ll get a lovely rush when I stand up,” Louis said. “The free alternative to drugs.”

“What are you on about?” Harry laughed.

The atmosphere between all the boys was… weird. Awkward. And Louis was sure the fans had been picking up on it. Still, Louis was too tired to dwell on it and he had an ache in his lower back. He must’ve slept funny. He wasn’t used to being wrapped around someone all night. Sitting here now, in the lounge, he could almost smell the delicious odour of Harry from this morning. Sweat, alcohol, sex. The dizzying, particular smell of Harry’s morning breath. Louis loved all of it.

Liam and Niall were both silent, sitting at a table not far away, noses in their phones. Delroy was stood against the wall, hands clasped in front of him and Louis felt sorry for him. Louis reckoned he couldn’t wait to get off this ship.

“Two minutes, boys,” Juliana said.

“You nervous for your solo set?” Harry asked.

“A little bit. But at the same time, I can’t wait. I think it’s gonna be a lot of fun.” Louis finally sat up and felt extremely dizzy as all the blood flowed away from his head. He looked at Harry. “If you’re not doing anything, will you watch me on the deck cam channel?”

Harry smiled softly. “Yeah. Sure.”

Louis smiled back, feeling a rush of confidence. If Harry was watching, he knew he had to nail it.

-

Louis came out onto the deck and the crowd cheered. Not even half the ship came to the solo events, the boys had all realised, but Louis reckoned he had a decent turn out. He looked out at the crowd, surprised to see Delroy at the back with one of the other bodyguards, Spencer. He squinted. Nestled between them, barely visible, was Harry. Harry gave him a small wave and Louis couldn’t help the beam from spreading across his face. He quickly looked away, not wanting his gaze to give Harry’s position away. He looked to the side of the stage where he’d thought Delroy would be and found Miro in his place.

Harry tried to stay hidden, not wanting to take focus from Louis. Louis could see him dancing and singing along to every song Louis sang, miming applause at the end of each one. By the time Louis’ set was finished, Harry and the bodyguards had vanished. Louis left the stage and when he got into the holding room, Harry grabbed him and pulled him into a hug.

“God, you did so well.” Harry sighed in his ear. “It was an honour to watch you. Well done, babe.”

“Thanks,” Louis whispered. 

Harry pulled away slightly and kissed him, assertively pushing his tongue in immediately to reel Louis in. Louis was completely consumed by Harry’s kiss and it was only when Juliana cleared her throat that Louis even remembered that other people were in the room.

“Guys? Back here in an hour for the Q&A.”

Louis went back to his room to get changed and find a place for a cigarette. Harry disappeared off to have lunch - God knows what he was doing when the rest of them had lunch - and when Louis returned to the holding room for the Q&A, Harry was curled up on the floor, fast asleep.

“You really wore him out.” Niall grinned, nudging Louis. “Look at him.”

“Fuck off, Niall.”

“Okay. But, look. What’s going on, Lou? What about Christian?”

“I don’t wanna talk about it. That’s Harry’s business. Ask him later.”

“Mate, I think he’ll bite our heads off,” Liam said, appearing from nowhere. “Remember when you said you were gonna send Christian a picture of him as Marcel?”

“Ooh, yeah,” Niall responded thoughtfully.

Louis let out a small laugh to himself. No wonder Harry didn’t want Niall sending Christian any photos. Louis should’ve been surprised that Harry had managed to keep the split from them all for so long but really, he wasn’t.

Harry was woken up and before he had completely come to, they were walking onto the stage and sitting on stools. Juliana mounted the stage, too. She’d received and picked the questions, and she was going to read them out. It was too risky to just ask fans straight up, Louis supposed.

Louis was at the end, followed by Liam, Harry, Niall. He casually wondered if someone had separated him and Harry on purpose. Still, it didn’t matter. If he just leaned forwards or backwards he could see Harry perfectly well. In fact… Louis climbed off his stool and shifted it slightly forwards. He smirked to Liam who shook his head with a small grin.

Juliana asked the first question. “Are you guys sick to death of each other after touring together for so long?”

“Alright, look,” Liam said. “We are the best of friends, now, but when you’ve been living in somebody’s pockets for three months you pretty much want to murder them. And in the early days when these two,” Liam cocked his thumbs outwards at Harry and Louis, “couldn’t keep their hands off each other, you would walk in on some pretty disturbing things.”

“What are you trying to say, Liam?” Louis asked in mock outrage. “Disturbing? You’re making everybody think I used to dress up in PVC and whip him, or something.”

“Any kind of… naked touching was disturbing. I don’t need to see that.”

Louis wanted to  _ scream. _ The fact that Liam brought this up, talking about their younger days, when the same damn thing had happened that morning, well. It was almost too much to bear. Especially with Harry staring at him, fucking froggy grin across his face.

“Liam would insist on always fucking opening windows.” Louis rolled his eyes. “Oh, God! It’d be freezing, and I get cold easy anyway, and he’d be all like, ‘I’m hot!’ and crack a window. I nearly strangled him more than once.”

“Remember that time we were all on the bus and Niall couldn’t stop farting?” Harry said and pretended to gag. “And he refused to take it into the toilet.”

“I didn’t need to go,” Niall protested.

“Mate, you were  _ not  _ well,” Harry replied.

“Okay, okay. Nobody wants to hear about Niall’s arse.” A lone girl screamed in protest of Louis’ claim. “Ew! I’m not being funny, love, you really do not want to hear about Niall’s noxious arse.”

“Okay.” Juliana raised her eyebrows, turning her attention back to the questions. “Did you give Zayn the chance to come on the cruise?”

Everybody just kind of turned to look at Liam, who once again answered first.

“I had spoken to him, and mentioned it to him, but we never formally offered. If he’d said, ‘mate, that sounds sick, I’d love to come along’, of course, we’d one hundred per cent love to have him on board.” Liam frowned. “Pun not intended. But, yeah, I don’t think this is his kind of thing at all.”

“He’s doing his own thing at the moment,” Louis added. “As Liam said, this isn’t really up his street. And we’ve been a four-piece for so long, we think this is how we’re meant to be, really.”

Louis looked at Juliana to prompt her. She stared down at the piece of paper.

“Next question. Do any of you have any regrets?”

The question hit Louis like a bullet in the chest. For years, he’d wondered what would’ve happened if he and Harry had realised a little earlier that their relationship had been in trouble. If they’d just tried, they could’ve saved it. Maybe. He couldn’t do anything about it, obviously. But it was always in the back of his mind and it was probably the only regret he’d suffered in the history of the band.

“Maybe not fighting for a hiatus sooner,” Harry piped up. “Maybe not quite like the one we had, but a bit of a break. I think we were all too close to cracking by the time we went on hiatus and I don’t think it was healthy.”

“Yeah, the first few years were a whirlwind,” Niall added. “I think I’d add to that, I suppose I regret not making the most of it, in the moment. You dwell constantly on how tired you are, how run down, and you forget to consider it as the best time of your life. We’re really lucky that we got all that, but at the same time, it’s lovely to be able to go on holiday nowadays and have the freedom to explore countries without getting mobbed.”

“Getting mobbed is great, but maybe not for lads our age,” Louis said.

The crowd laughed and Louis shrugged. 

“It’s a great balance these days,” Harry said. “It’s really amazing to be able to have the space to live a relatively normal life, but it’s also just so incredible to come and do something like this and be with you all. So, thank you.”

Louis turned to smile softly at Harry as the crowd screamed. Always so well-mannered, his Harry. Louis felt his heart swell a bit.

The Q&A was quite fun, really. After all these years, it was nice to finally be able to be honest. Talk candidly about their experiences, say what they mean without fear of repercussion. When they exited the stage Louis was in a particularly good mood. 

-

“I’ll see if there’s a tailor on the ship to take these trousers up a bit.”

“It’s not the end of the world if there isn’t,” Louis said to Juliana as he rubbed a towel on his wet hair. “It’s not like they’re tripping me up.”

“Well, we want you to look your best for your Prom night.”

Louis grinned. “Shut up.”

The room’s phone started to ring and Louis looked at it, raising his eyebrows. Juliana sighed and walked over.

“Hello?” She looked at Louis as she listened. Something in her expression made Louis stop in his tracks, dropping the towel to the bed. “Alright, I’ll tell him.”

Juliana hung up and Louis cocked an eyebrow. “Tell me what?”

_ “Harry _ would like me to let you know he’s going to have the staff close off the solarium during Niall’s solo concert so he can go for a swim.” Juliana folded her arms. “And that you’re welcome to join him.”

“Oh.” Louis picked the towel up from the bed and headed into the bathroom to chuck it on the floor. “Cool, thanks.”

Juliana hummed to herself as she picked up Louis’ suit trousers and headed towards the door. She grabbed the handle and turned to look at Louis.

“I assume you’re going. Please be safe, and keep Delroy with you. I’ll call him if I need to reach you.”

“Yeah, fine.”

“Do not go off without him again, Louis.”

“Alright.”

Juliana left the room and Louis betrayed a grin to himself. He whipped the towel from around his waist and set about looking for his swim trunks.

-

“Miro will be here along with the staff to make sure no fans come in,” Louis told Delroy. “But me and Harry need to chat about some things so we could use the privacy.”

“Louis, my job is to protect you. I’d rather be in there with you. You know I’m not going to listen when you speak.”

“Oh?” Louis said, levelling him with a smirk. “Is that right?”

“You know what I mean.” Delroy grinned. “I’m discreet. Look at all the things I’ve been having to ignore so far.”

“Oi!” Louis said, indignant.

“Also, if me and Miro are both guarding outside, the fans will know immediately that the two of you are in there.”

“That’s true.” Louis chewed on his bottom lip. “Alright, but I’d just really like us to be alone.”

Delroy shrugged, sighing. “Well, I’ll have a talk with Miro.”

There was no avoiding people finding out they would be locked in the solarium together, really. Louis bumped into some fans on the way, towel on his shoulder, and there was a group of girls waiting outside the solarium, near to where Miro was waiting.

“See,” Delroy said. “They’re gonna know.”

“Alright. You might as well wait with Miro, then.”

Delory relented and he joined Miro outside the solarium. A member of staff opened the door for Louis and once it closed, the warmth and humidity encompassed him and he was alone in the silence. Apart from the quiet splashing coming from the pool, that was.

Louis walked to the edge of the pool and threw his towel on a lounger. Harry spotted him from the other side of the pool, neatly cutting across the water and came to a stop below him, placing his arms on the edge.

“Hi, Lou.”

Louis smiled and sat down, pushing his legs into the pool either side of Harry. Harry watched as Louis lifted his t-shirt, pulled it over his head and tossed it onto the lounger behind him. Harry drifted back slightly as Louis slipped into the water.

“It’s lovely in here,” Louis said, wiggling his toes in the water. “Very relaxing.”

“Thought it would be the perfect setting for us to have a bit of a chat.”

Louis looked down into the water. Part of him was afraid of what Harry was planning to say. Last night had been great but maybe… maybe Harry realised he still loved Christian. That leaving him was a mistake. Louis couldn’t stop his heart from sinking.

“I’ve been thinking about what you said this morning. About going back to being friends with benefits, and stuff.”

Louis cleared his throat. “Oh.”

“I have to tell you something.” Harry didn’t seem to know what to do with himself, so wordlessly he paddled over to lean on the edge of the pool next to Louis, facing the loungers. Louis turned around to face the same way but, sensing Harry’s discomfort, didn’t look at him. “Christian and I had been having problems for a while, and that was mostly down to me. I knew I was starting to grow distant during the past couple of months, but I kind of think I didn’t want to acknowledge the truth.

“The closer we got to this cruise, the more I realised how hard it was going to be. Spending more time with you in preparation for this trip was becoming really difficult and the way I was feeling just wasn’t fair on him. I had to end it, you know?”

Louis didn’t know what to say. He was feeling everything but could say nothing. He pressed his mouth to his wet forearm, trying to think of some kind of response.

“Well, so… that’s that.” Harry sighed. “I’m sorry, I had to be honest. Needless to say, I’m not sure I can do friends with benefits, Lou.”

Louis finally looked at him. Harry was still staring ahead, looking rather insecure. Louis slid closer to him, wrapping an arm around his waist.

“Harry.” Louis kissed Harry’s shoulder and when Harry turned slightly towards him, he took his opportunity to slide even closer and kiss his lips. Louis felt Harry relax slightly at his touch. “Last night was incredible. You have to know how special it was to me.”

“Yeah?” Harry whispered, lips by Louis’ cheek. He sighed heavily, as if the weight of the world was resting on his shoulders. “Me too. Really special.”

“Haz?”

“I’m still in love with you, Louis.”

The world fell away and they were kissing. Louis didn’t know who initiated it but there they were, Louis pressing Harry against the wall of the pool as he gripped onto the edge tightly. They kissed as if their lives depended on it, and Louis felt like it did. He didn’t think he would be satisfied until he’d absorbed Harry into him, and Louis’ head swam as he pressed more firmly against him. He started to rut against Harry, who let out a groan deep from his throat. It snapped Louis back into reality and he pulled away.

“Oh. Fuck.” Louis took a deep breath, blinking at a dazed Harry. “We need to… I mean, there’s gonna be fans getting in this water after us.”

Harry let out a light, airy laugh. He bit his lip. “Um, yeah. Do you think we have time before our concert to-”

“No. Well…”

Harry smirked. “Meet me in my room. You hosted me last night, it’s only fair I host you.”

“Yeah, alright. We have to be quick, though.”

Harry snorted. “I can do quick.”

He placed his hands on the edge of the pool and hoisted himself up. Louis watched as the water fell away, dripping from his skin and his swim shorts. They clung to his arse, the water making the white material slightly transparent and Louis found himself sighing longingly.

“Right, so.” Harry grabbed his towel and started to dry himself. It was distracting. “I’ll head off first. Why don’t you follow in like, ten minutes? Thank God our rooms are all next to each other.”

“True.”

Harry shot him a grin as he wrapped his towel around his waist. “I’ll see you in a bit.”

Louis watched as Harry made his way out of the solarium and then occupied himself by swimming slowly, trying to steady his brain as he cut smoothly through the water, letting the silence absorb him.

Harry was in love with him. 

Louis played the confession over and over in his mind, hoping the reality of it would sink in. Louis had never dared to really think about his feelings, never thought to throw himself into the idea that he could be in love with Harry, too. The thought gave Louis a kind of anxious excitement. What did it all mean? They’d slept together last night, and Harry was waiting for Louis in his room right now. 

Harry had split with Christian because he was still in love with Louis.

Louis reached the edge of the pool and quickly pulled himself out of the water, towelled himself dry and pulled his t-shirt on. He tied his towel around his waist and sat down for a second to compose himself. This was it. Things were about to change dramatically. On some level, Louis had spent the past however many years waiting for this to happen.

He grabbed Delroy as he left, and he greeted fans but didn’t stop for photos. He galloped down the stairs, Delroy and fans in hot pursuit and once he reached the corridor, he thanked Delroy and walked past his own room to knock on Harry’s door.

As Louis waited, he heard someone behind him. Niall was arriving back from his solo performance.

“Tommo,” he acknowledged, a small grin on his face. “See ya in a bit.”

Harry’s door opened and to Louis’ surprise, Miro was staring back at him.

“Hi.” Miro sighed, stepping out of the doorway. Louis stood to the side to let him out. “We need you all ready to go in forty-five minutes for the concert. Don’t be late.”

Louis stepped inside the room and could see Harry out on the balcony. He was still dressed in only his swim shorts, looking out to the sea. His damp hair was flapping in the wind and Louis could have sworn his heart skipped a beat. After all this time.

Louis made his way over to the balcony door and slid it open. Harry glanced over his shoulder.

“Hi, Lou.” Harry resumed his contemplation of the water. “Miro gone?”

“Yup. Just me and you.” Louis leaned on the railing next to Harry and nudged him. “Unless you have any other members of staff hiding in here, somewhere.”

Harry let out a quiet chuckle. “Nope.”

Harry made no move to go inside so Louis stared out at the horizon, too. The sun had disappeared and it was starting to get dark out. The cruise was coming to an end.

“Can you believe we get off tomorrow?” Louis said quietly. “It’s flown by, hasn’t it?”

“Yeah.” Harry let out a barely audible sigh. “It’s gone too quick.”

“What happens when we get home?” Louis whispered.

Harry sighed again, turning to head inside. Louis followed, walking with him over to the bed. Harry crawled onto it and sat cross legged and Louis mirrored him. He took a deep breath. Might as well come out with it.

“Harry, I love you.”

Harry inhaled sharply and seemed to hold his breath. “Really? I hope you’re not just saying it. Because-”

“Haz, love. Like I told you the other night, I’ve always thought of you as mine. That didn’t change when you were with Christian, and that was so difficult for me to deal with.”

“I’m sorry.” Harry reached out to take Louis’ hand. 

“Look, the past is the past. We’ve made a lot of mistakes.” Louis sighed. “When we first split up, the pain was unbearable. I was so bitter and angry for a long time and I think that kind of clouded my feelings.”

Harry chewed on his bottom lip, running a thumb over the back of Louis’ hand. “So… Are we…?”

Louis laughed and shifted onto his knees. He crawled closer to Harry and took his face in his hands. 

“You know, I was under the impression I was coming here for a shag.”

“Sorry, sorry!” Harry grinned. “Wanna chat tomorrow?”

Louis nodded. “Let’s talk about the serious stuff in the morning and just… have fun tonight.”

“Well,” Harry said. “I’d love to grind on you at Prom but I think the teachers would pull us apart.”

“Who are the teachers?” Louis laughed, running his hands down Harry’s arms. “Miro and Delroy? Juliana? Niall and Liam?!”

“Niall and Liam have seen enough,” Harry replied. “Remember that time in Brazil when Liam walked in on us when we-”

“Don’t remind me. His screaming put me right off.” Louis shuddered. “Let’s not talk about them, anyway.”

Harry hummed in agreement and wrapped his arms around Louis’ waist. He pulled him closer, sliding down the bed to lay on his back, pulling Louis on top of him. 

“I’m not sure if- if…” Louis paused to gasp as Harry reached down between their bodies to grope at Louis’ half-hard cock. “We have time for a fuck.”

Harry frowned, rubbing his hand up and down on Louis’ crotch. “What about quick, dirty handjobs?”

“Fuck, yes. Please,” Louis mumbled and quickly moved to shed his swim trunks. Harry did the same and Louis wasted no time in grabbing hold of Harry’s cock and bumping their mouths together in a wet, sloppy kiss. He shuffled slightly to lay next to Harry, giving them both space to touch and look at each other.

They got each other off, rough and swift, their panting and moaning the only sounds in the room. Louis slipped a leg between Harry’s, wanting as much of their bodies in contact as possible. His cock was sensitive and Harry’s harsh movements were borderline painful, but it was so good and it didn’t take long for Louis to fast approach orgasm. 

“I’m close,” he murmured into Harry’s ear. 

“Mm, I love you.” Harry stared into Louis’ eyes. “Never let me go.”

Harry twisted his fist in the exact movement that always drove Louis wild and with a slightly late shout of warning Louis came, spilling over Harry’s fist and onto his own stomach. 

“Oh shit, oh shit,” Louis panted, trying to remember to find the energy to continue to get Harry off. “Fuck, I missed your hurried handjobs.”

Harry’s brow was furrowed and he was groaning and bucking up into Louis’ fist. He was covered in a slight sheen of sweat and Louis considered him at his most beautiful when he was like this. Vulnerable, desperate, open. Louis kissed him, a sweet, soft peck which directly contrasted the eager, hot kisses from just a few minutes earlier.

“I love you, baby,” Louis whispered as he squeezed Harry’s cock and then, Harry started to come. His body tensed completely under Louis, spurting onto his tummy before falling limp. He was a panting, sweaty mess and Louis couldn’t help but beam widely.

“You know,” Harry started, still panting. “I love the slow and sexy, like last night. But I love the quick and dirty, too. It’s win win!”

“Basically, you just love sex.”

“When it’s with you.” Harry gave him a small smile.

Louis grinned, satisfied. “Well, you’ll get both with me, baby.”

“Mm.” Harry closed his eyes and nodded. “I know.”

-

The concert went by in a flash for Louis. He was in a daze the whole time, relaxed and cheerful and energised. When the concert finished, after having a snog backstage with Harry, Louis headed back to his room for the full-body massage he had booked.

“You should’ve let me,” Harry said, watching as Louis was rubbed down by a small woman. “You always used to let me massage you.”

“Yeah, and we know how that would go.” Louis rolled his eyes. “We’d never make it to Prom Night.”

Harry grinned. “Will you be my date to prom, Louis?”

“No,” Louis replied flatly. “You already have a date.”

Four lucky fans would be brought up on stage tonight to be ‘Prom Queens’ they would get the chance to dance with one of the boys each. It was a terrible idea, in Louis’ opinion, but since the Backstreet Boys once did it, management thought it was a great idea. Louis supposed it was a nice experience for the fans in question, even if all four of them were shit at dancing.

“Oh, yeah.” Harry let out a little laugh. “Good job Tootsie isn’t here. She gets so funny about fans touching Liam.”

Louis laughed brightly and Harry looked at him strangely, knowing what he said wasn’t funny enough to warrant such a reaction.

“You wanna hear something funny?” Louis said, still laughing but speaking with a tone of reluctance. Harry nodded. “When Niall asked me to do this cruise, I said no. I eventually told him I’d only come if they enforced a no spouse rule, because I knew I wouldn’t be able to cope if you’d brought Christian on.”

Louis was no longer laughing, failing to remember what he’d found so funny. Harry wasn’t laughing either. He was frowning, looking at Louis sadly.

“Really?”

Louis sighed. “I didn’t always understand the way I felt but watching you with him was horrible.”

“I brought him into your home, and everything.” Harry rested his chin on his palm. “I should’ve been a bit more mindful.”

“Yeah, well. You didn’t know I was still-” Louis stopped abruptly and looked away from Harry. “You weren’t to know.”

Harry stood to his feet and approached Louis, dropping to his knees to meet Louis’ eyes where he was laying on his front on the massage table. He ran the back of a finger over Louis’ cheek.

“I love you.” He leaned in to give Louis a sweet peck. “This is it. No messing about. I’m not losing you again.”

Louis closed his eyes. “I love you, too.”

He felt like he wanted to cry, but he wouldn’t. He could save such vulnerable, tender moments for another time. They said they would chat about their feelings tomorrow, about their future. Maybe Louis would cry then. 

“Haz?”

Harry had returned to his place on the sofa. “Hm?”

“We’re gonna talk about stuff tomorrow, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Louis winced as the masseuse rubbed a particular tense part of his lower back. “Well, I was kind of thinking… we’re supposed to be flying back tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah. Whose place shall we go to?”

“Well, I was thinking… do you want to stay in Barcelona for a night? And the next day we could get the latest flight home. I just thought it might be nice to reconnect somewhere that we have happy memories together.”

“That’s a really lovely idea, Louis.”

-

Harry let out a little grunt as Louis shoved him against the wall. Louis’s hands were on Harry’s waist and as he squeezed and moved in, he felt like he wanted to press his body against Harry’s for the rest of his life. It just felt so, so good and he couldn’t get enough. He wondered how he had ever stopped doing this.

Then they were kissing, hot and eager, tongues dancing together. Someone sighed, and Louis thought about pulling away from Harry to turn around but he didn’t care enough to find out who it was. He heard the door open, followed by-

“Ugh! Jesus!” 

“Yeah,” Liam said with a sigh to Niall, who’d just walked in. “They’ve been like this for ten minutes.”

Louis carried on his tour of Harry’s mouth, reaching a hand behind his back to stick his middle finger up in the general direction of Liam. It had been years since they’d made the boys uncomfortable by doing this, and Louis couldn’t be happier to get the chance to do it again. They were both half-hard when Louis finally pulled away from Harry, taking his hand and walking him slowly past the boys and into a chair. Liam and Niall both made noises of disgust at their bulging crotches and poor Juliana didn’t know where to look. She was new. She wasn’t used to this.

“Alright.” Niall held his hands in the air and shook his head at Liam’s stern expression of warning. “Look, I have to ask. What the fuck is going on?”

Harry sighed, looking at Louis, whose lap he was perched upon. “Fine. Okay, look. Me and Christian decided about a month ago to go our separate ways. As a consequence… Louis and I are looking into rekindling.”

“You’re…” Niall raised his eyebrows as if he wasn’t sure he’d heard properly.  _ “Rekindling?” _

“Not… not just sex?” Liam asked, seeing thoroughly confused.

“Not just sex,” Harry confirmed. “But we have a long way to go and a lot of talking to do so, just… don’t get excited and don’t pressure us.”

“Me? Us?” Niall scoffed. “Of course not.”

Harry shot him a glare. Juliana took the opportunity to interject.

“Okay, then. We’ll have you all out on the stage, and we’ll call out the names of your Prom Queens.”

Louis scoffed, rolling his eyes. “There’s male fans on this cruise too, you know. Enough of your gendered competitions and terms, Juliana.”

She raised her eyebrows at him. “Actually, we do have a male winner.”

“Oh.” Louis looked at Harry. “Okay, so whose date is he?”

“You’re just going to have to wait and see.”

Louis looked at Harry again. At least if this guy was Harry’s date, Louis wouldn’t really have much to be jealous of. He knew he would be going home with Harry. Tonight, and for a long time to come. Probably wouldn’t stop him from being jealous, though.

“Lou,” Harry said quietly, standing up and holding his hand out. Louis took it and let Harry pull him to his feet, not even questioning why. “Come with me.”

They left Liam’s room despite Juliana’s protests, and Harry took him into his. There were clothes carefully draped over a chair and Louis reckoned they’d been on the floor before housekeeping had been around.

Harry was still clutching at Louis’ hand and he wrapped it around his waist before grabbing hold of Louis’ face with both hands.

“I’ve got something for you and I hope you’ll accept it.”

Louis cocked an eyebrow as Harry pulled away, walking over to the desk. There was a vase on the table with yellow roses in it and Harry plucked one, snapping and twisting off the majority of the stem. Louis smiled as Harry approached him, slipping it into his buttonhole.

“You’re my date at heart,” Harry said.

“Haz, darling, do you realise yellow roses represent friendship?”

“What? Why? Why does it matter?” Harry shrugged. “They just put them in my room.”

“Nobody put flowers in  _ my _ room,” Louis complained before smiling at Harry. “I very much appreciate the gesture, love. I’ll cherish it all night.”

This seemed to please Harry and he slipped his hand into Louis’ and they headed back to Liam’s.

-

Louis, Liam, and Niall all wore fairly standard suits but, true to form, Harry went all out and dressed in an entirely yellow suit with a black shirt. The fans loved it, of course. 

“Is that suit expensive?” Louis asked, leaning into Harry’s space and speaking into his ear.

“Yes, it is.” Harry glanced at him before looking back out to the crowd. “Why?”

“Just wondering how careful I need to be with it tonight. You know, later.”

Harry attempted to stifle a grin and tried to focus as Juliana started to announce the boys’ ‘dates’ for the evening. Harry’s was female, to Louis’ relief, and so was Louis’. Liam smiled nervously as his own female date took the stage, which left Niall.

“Yes!” Niall cheered as his date made his way towards the stage. He was a man named Doug, who looked maybe five years younger than Niall. He seemed ecstatic, probably spurred on by Niall’s delight. He made it onto the stage and the boys greeted him one by one, and Niall threw his arms around him. 

Louis turned his focus on his own date, whose name was Valentina. She was very pretty and she seemed shy. They all slow-danced in their pairs, and Louis felt kind of awkward. It had been a long time since he’d danced with a woman, especially this close. Still, Valentina seemed happy and Louis liked the way that Harry was watching them as they moved. 

Liam was dancing with his date practically at arm’s length, and Niall let Doug hold him close as they swayed together, Niall occasionally letting out a loud, bleating laugh. It was a warm night, a slight breeze and Louis thought it was the perfect night to end the cruise on.

He felt sad that it was coming to an end, and immediately decided they had to do more. He’d been reluctant in the beginning but as long as the demand was there, Louis would be willing to keep doing them. 

The boys all had Prom photos with their dates, who were given goodie bags and sent on their way. Louis looked over Harry’s shoulders at the photos Juliana had taken.

There was one of Niall sat on Doug’s knee and Louis needed to send it to Cati immediately. There was a group photo, too, in which Harry had somehow found himself next to Louis. It was a lovely photo, and everybody looked as happy as anything.

“This cruise has been the best thing ever,” Niall said quietly, and all the boys nodded in agreement.

-

Niall spent the next hour mixing up a special ‘punch’ that he insisted on getting distributed to the fans. He made five batches before he gave up and showed the barman how to make it. 

“You realise you’re basically spending your whole fee on drinks for the fans?” Liam said.

“Yeah,” Louis said with a scoff. “What happened to, ‘please do the cruise, I need the money!’?”

“I was lying to get you here, obviously,” Niall replied.

“Hey,” Harry said quietly in Louis’ ear, grabbing hold of his elbow and pulling him away. “You wanna go out in the crowd together? Take selfies with fans?”

“Together?”

Harry shrugged and nodded. Louis did the same and so they headed out into the crowd. They were immediately engulfed and Harry had to reach out and grab Louis’ hand to stop himself from drifting away from him. The fans were so closely knit around them that none of them saw. Harry pulled himself closer to Louis and dropped his hand, flopping his arms around Louis’ shoulders instead.

“We’re a package deal, tonight.” Harry announced to the fans surrounding them. “Your pictures will be with both of us, or neither of us.”

Louis snorted, rolling his eyes at Harry. Louis could see Miro cutting through the crowd behind them, trying to catch up, but Delroy was nowhere to be seen. Louis trusted him, so he wasn’t too bothered. Harry seemed to be leading them in a specific direction through the fans, and after ten minutes when they’d made slight progress Louis spotted Delroy on the other side of the crowd.

“Do you know what’s funny?” Louis said into Harry’s ear.

“What’s that, babe?”

Louis smirked as he watched a fan, who had overheard Harry, widen her eyes in scandal. “Miro and Delroy have changed tactic. They’re not working individually, they’re actually working together to protect both of us.”

Harry looked around and saw the two bodyguards flanking the crowd. His face broke into a grin.

“That actually makes me feel really warm and fuzzy inside.”

Louis let out a loud laugh as Harry pulled him through the crowd further. They finally made it out, reaching Delroy, and Harry ushered himself and Louis (followed by Miro and Delroy) into the lift.

“Where are we going?” Louis asked as Harry hit the button for deck 12. 

“Dunno.”

Deck 12 was fairly deserted and Harry took Louis’ hand, walking him out into the open air. The wind had picked up slightly and Louis’ hair whipped in front of his face. He flicked his head to get it out of his eyes and he spotted Harry smiling to himself.

“What you grinning at, eh?” Louis smiled softly.

“Nothing. Hey! Let’s go in here.”

They were in front of a sports court which was dark and lacking in any kind of sports equipment. Louis frowned.

“It’s locked, babe.”

“Fuck that.” Harry dropped Louis’ hand and started to walk around the court, looking for a way in. “Here!”

Louis jogged over to him and Harry had jumped up on a fence and was scaling it.

“Harry, what the fuck?” Louis sighed heavily. “I can’t do that.”

“Get one of the lads to give you a boost.”

Louis cocked his head and gave Harry a stern look, before turning towards Delroy, who looked rather exasperated. 

“Last day, love,” Louis said to him dejectedly. “You’ll be home with your family this time tomorrow.”

Delroy smiled as he gave Louis a boost up. He made it to the top of the fence, trying to climb down the other side when Harry grabbed him by the waist and pulled him down.

“Fucking hell, Haz. Was this necessary?”

“Absolutely.” Harry suddenly dropped to the floor, lying on his back and so Louis joined him with a sigh. It was quiet, now. Louis could hear the sound of the party going on below them, not too far away but far away enough that the sound felt distant and he felt truly alone with Harry. He shuffled close to him, staring up at the stars.

“It’s gorgeous, isn’t it?”

“I think I want to retire from performing.”

Louis sat up abruptly, staring down at Harry. “What? Why?”

Harry shrugged, still staring up at the stars. “I just think I’ve done my time. I still want to write. And sing.”

“I was kind of hoping…” Louis said before shaking his head.

Harry turned to look at him. “Hoping what?”

“Just… I wanted to do more cruises. This has been so much fun.”

Harry turned his eyes back to the sky and shrugged.

“I’m not saying I’ll never perform. I can still come on and do the cruises.” He smiled slightly. “They’d sell well if it was the only time I performed.”

“You’ve always loved performing. I just don’t understand.”

“I just don’t want to go off on tour, you know?” Harry chewed at his bottom lip. “When I toured the last time, I spent the whole time wishing I was home. I just don’t think I can cope with life on the road anymore. I wanna-”

Louis looked at him and raised his eyebrows. Harry had turned his head away fully now, right hand scratching at his tummy compulsively.

“You want to what?”

“I just… I think it’s time to settle down a bit. Maybe start a family.”

A weight settled over them, oppressive and daunting, like thunder. Louis took a deep breath in, exhaling it heavily. He was at a loss for words. He wasn’t exactly sure what Harry meant. Was he saying he wanted to jump straight back in at the deep end with Louis? Was he talking generally? Did he even know his own intentions?

“We had all these plans, you know?” Harry continued. Louis didn’t know which specific ‘we’ Harry was talking about. “I’ve just been thinking about it a lot, that’s all.”

“Babe,” Louis said quietly. “You’re kind of talking in riddles. A little bit.”

Harry turned his head again to look at Louis. “You still want all that stuff, Lou?”

“Yeah,” Louis replied without hesitation. 

Harry reached over and laced their fingers together. They laid in silence for a few more minutes before Harry sighed and made to stand up.

“Come on. We should head back. Can’t abandon the fans this early on on the last night.”

“You really think I’m gonna be able to get out of this bloody enclosure?”

“Oh, come on. I’ll help.” Harry held out his hand and pulled Louis to his feet. After a leg up from Harry, ripping his suit trousers and ending up in Delroy’s arms, Louis made it out and once Harry joined him, Louis folded his arms and smirked.

“I’ve got a better idea than going back to the party.”

Harry grinned naughtily. “Oh?”

“Not that.” Louis rolled his eyes and started to walk. “I say we go knock on some cabin doors. Surprise the shit out of fans.”

“Oh, nice!” Harry said. “But most people are out.”

“Oh, so it’s okay for you to yell at people who aren’t partying on the first night?”

Harry laughed. “But people are tired now!”

“Shut up. Look, let’s go to the bottom of the boat. Knock on the doors of some of the internal cabins. They’re the cheap ones.”

“Alright, let’s see if we can find anyone.”

It turned out there weren’t that many cabins on the bottom deck, but they found one occupied room, surprising the two girls inside who had just got back from the party. The girls invited them inside and Louis said yes before thinking. They had a quick drink and the girls took loads of photos, then the boys left and headed up to the next deck up.

“You shouldn’t have gone inside,” Miro told them as they walked up the stairs. “If you insist on doing that, at least let one of us in with you.”

“But think how special it was for them.” Louis shrugged. “Ah, they’re not gonna throw us overboard, or anything.”

“Especially not from an internal cabin with no window,” Harry remarked.

Louis giggled as he turned down the right hand corridor. He started knocking on doors indiscriminately, cheering as one opened.

“Hey!” Louis said. “I’m Louis!”

The girl at the door was in her pyjamas and looked like she might pass out. Louis hugged her, followed by Harry and then she went to wake up her cabin mates.

“Let’s knock on a few more after this,” Harry said quietly to Louis as they waited in the doorway. “Then go join the boys for a bit?”

“Yeah, sounds good.”

“Then I want you to myself.”

Louis bit back a grin, a rush coursing through him. After all this time, the thought of being naked with Harry affected him in a crazy way and if he was honest, he couldn’t wait to once again get to do it on a regular basis.

After meeting the girl’s friends, Harry and Louis knocked on a few more doors before heading up to join Niall and Liam. Niall was, of course, still on the stage. He was joined by someone whom Louis thought from a distance looked to be Doug. Liam was nowhere to be seen.

“Hey,” Louis said to Niall as they made it onto the stage. “Having fun?”

“They had to stop making my punch because they ran out of pomegranate! Can you believe it?”

“They probably didn’t think they needed enough to supply two thousand people in one night, Ni.”

Louis and Harry both greeted Doug without questioning Niall why he was there. Niall told them Liam was out in the crowd somewhere and most of the fans seemed to be either drunk or distracted and Harry turned to Louis, grazing his hand over his elbow.

“I don’t think anyone will notice if we slip away.”

“Oh?” Louis smirked. “What happened to not abandoning the fans on the last night?”

“The only fans left around the stage here are Niall’s fans. They don’t care about us. Our fans are probably camped out in front of our corridor to see if we come back together.”

Louis paused and raised his eyebrows. “Yeah. Probably. Should we go back separately, then?”

“Mm, let them talk.” Harry stepped closer to Louis and licked his lips. Louis imagined he could feel the gaze of countless fans burning into him. Here they were, elevated on a stage surrounded by fans. It had been his instinct for such a long time to conceal how he and Harry really felt about each other, and he felt uneasy. Harry clearly didn’t, and Louis had to remind himself that these days, they could essentially do what they wanted. “Come on, let’s create a scandal.”

Louis laughed as Harry started to make his way off the stage. Louis followed, waving goodbye to Niall. The four of them would be ushered off the ship in just a few short hours, as soon as they docked in Barcelona and before the fans started to disembark. That would be the last time he and Harry would see Niall and Liam for a while. The two boys would head home and Louis and Harry would be left in Barcelona, finally alone together again. Trying to reconnect and piece their lives back together. 

“Juliana sorted out hotel for tomorrow,” Harry said. “She said no matter how early we arrive, we’ll be able to check in and get straight into our room.”

“Aw, brilliant. Maybe we shouldn’t even sleep tonight and just nap when we get there.”

Harry just smirked in response. Louis checked his watch. It was coming up for 3am. They’d be getting off in three or four hours. Absolutely no point trying to sleep. From Harry’s amused expression, Louis reckoned he had other ideas of how to fill the time.

Louis tried to keep a straight face as they arrived at the corridor and a couple of dozen fans were hanging around. They kind of fell silent as Louis and Harry arrived together, saying goodnight to them all and making a swift exit down the corridor.

“They’re all gonna spend a fortune on ship WiFi now so they can tell the world we came back together.”

“Let them talk,” Harry said breezily. “Wait, whose room are we going to?”

“Well,” Louis mused. “I really could do with doing a bit of packing.”

“Really? We’re going back to yours to… pack?”

“I need to pack my stuff, Harry. What do you want me to do?” Louis rolled his eyes. “How about we go back to my room, order some food and some coffee, and you help me pack? And then… I’m all yours.”

Harry glared at him as they pushed into Louis’ room. “I feel cheated. I’m too tired and drunk to pack!”

The door slammed behind them, and Louis shoved a surprised Harry up against it. He placed his palms flat on the door either side of Harry’s head.

“If you’re too tired to pack, you’re too tired to fuck.”

“No!” Harry whined.

“So, ring room service and order us something light to eat. And a pot of coffee.”

Louis didn’t move, though, still caging him in. Harry was staring at him, breathless, eyes wild. Louis took a tiny step closer and rutted his crotch against Harry’s. Harry was hard, harder than Louis had been expecting and he almost threw away all notion of packing. He could just buy everything again, right?

“The sooner we pack, the sooner we can get on with other stuff. Yeah?” Louis grinned, finally dropping his hands from the door. “Do you think it’s the dinner menu or the breakfast menu?”

“I think they’ll make us whatever we want.”

Louis had walked away, heading for the closet. He pulled his suitcase out and threw it on the bed before removing his suit jacket and tie. Harry was still leaning against the door, watching him. Louis looked over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow, and Harry hurried over to the phone, pulling his suit jacket off and tossing it onto a chair.

“So, what do you want?”

“Something fairly bland,” Louis replied. “I’m a weird mix of tired and drunk and hungover and horny.”

Harry let out a barking laugh. “Me, too.”

He got on the phone and ordered a turkey sandwich with fries for the two of them to share, a big pot of coffee, and some pastries for later. Louis was folding clothes and throwing them in the case, and Harry joined him and started to pick clothes up and chuck them in the case haphazardly.

“Harry!”

“What? You’re wasting time. Why are you folding stuff?” Harry scoffed. “You’ve  _ changed.” _

“Oh, shut up,” Louis said with a wide grin. “What’s gonna happen when I open this case tomorrow?”

“I don’t care.” Harry beamed. 

They continued to pack Louis’ stuff, and Louis ended up just chucking stuff in, too. It zapped all of his energy, and they both collapsed on the bed, exhausted.

“Staying up was a bad idea,” Louis whined. “I can’t move.”

Harry laboriously shuffled closer and kissed him. “Food and coffee will be here any minute.”

“True.” Louis managed to turn on his side, facing Harry. Harry looked wasted. Inebriated and sleepy. His eyes were closing, so Louis reached over and rubbed his palm over Harry’s flagging semi.

“God,” Harry groaned through gritted teeth, eyes darting open. “You’re horrible.”

“Oh, well. I-”

A knock on the door disrupted them and Louis climbed to his feet, his heavy body crossing the room to open the door. Louis looked over at Harry who had flipped over to his front, likely hiding the fact he’d become hard again.

“Thank you,” Louis said to the attendant, handing him a fairly generous tip. “Thanks for everything this week.”

The very grateful attendant gave his thanks and left. Harry was up and already making his way through his half of the sandwich.

“Hungry?” Louis asked, amused as he started to pour them both coffee. “Slow down, babe. I’m not having you getting indigestion.”

“This isn’t what I expected us to be doing when we left the party early,” Harry said, mouth full. “I’m still fully clothed, I’m eating a sandwich, and I helped you pack. This isn’t what I signed up for at all.”

Louis levelled him with a look as he took a sip of hot coffee. “We’ll make up for lost time when it comes to sex, I promise. You just have to decide what you want out of our, like, one and a half days in Barcelona.”

“We don’t exactly need to sightsee. I want a few hours sleep, then I want to spend the rest of the time on food and sex.” He paused to think. “Maybe a couple of hours in the pool.”

Louis grinned. “Do I get a say?”

Harry shook his head, smiling as Louis finally sat down next to him. They ate in relative silence, and Louis grew more and more tired. Maybe they should take a little nap and save the naughty antics for the hotel. He turned to Harry to make the suggestion but, as tired as Harry looked, too, there was an unmistakable fire still burning in his eyes and Louis didn’t have the heart to let him down.

They both drank a second cup of coffee each and Louis started to feel a bit jittery. He and Harry started to kiss, laying down on the bed and Louis didn’t even dare close his eyes. The coffee seemed to have done Harry some good. He was eagerly licking into Louis’ mouth, the bitter taste jarring and delicious to him.

Louis sighed, his body relaxing as Harry’s hands started to unbutton his shirt, fingertips grazing the hot skin. Harry pulled the shirt open, emitting a little groan of pleasure as he kissed over Louis’ chest and ribs. As Harry nibbled at his stomach and started to undo his belt, Louis tangled his fingers loosely into Harry’s hair. 

“You still smell the same,” Harry mumbled as he freed Louis’ hard cock and kissed the shaft, nuzzling his nose into the smattering of hair.

Louis’ brain immediately wanted to make a sarcastic comment but his heart was fizzling with affection, so he stayed quiet. Harry took him all the way down at once, and Louis cried out in a mixture of surprise and arousal.

Harry bobbed his head slowly and Louis sunk into the lovely, sexy feeling of his boy’s mouth around him. Harry. The love of his life. They were reunited, once again. For good.

Louis was soaring and the only thing his senses could tell him was that Harry loved him, his soft, wet tongue sliding up and down the underside of Louis’ cock. He drifted off, lost in the feeling.

Louis didn’t know what happened. As suddenly as anything, Harry started to bob his head quick and rough, Louis’ tip bumping the back of Harry’s throat over and over. As gratifying as it was, the sudden surprise was an unpleasant shock to his system. 

“Oh, my God! What the fuck?” Louis whined, trying to stop his hips bucking into Harry’s mouth.

Harry popped off of Louis’ dick suddenly and looked up at him, glaring.

“You fell asleep, you absolute arsehole!”

“I fucking didn’t!”

“You did.”

Louis realised he probably did fall asleep. He grinned sheepishly at Harry and stroked his cheek with the back of his fingers.

“I’m so sorry, baby. It was so good. I was just so relaxed…”

“Save it,” Harry grumbled. Louis pouted, bucking his hips pointedly. “I’m gonna finish, then I’m going to come on you, then I’m going to pack. You can make up for your indiscretion later on at the hotel.”

“Yes, Sir. Anything you say.”

“Don’t call me Sir,” Harry said, trying to sound stern but betraying a tiny flustered grin. They knew each other too well.

Harry took Louis back into his mouth and Louis threw himself into the experience, moaning and whining and giving Harry murmured words of encouragement. He came a few minutes later, shouting loudly and praising Harry at the top of his lungs. Harry popped off of him, laughing.

“Shh! Fuck, I’d be mortified if one of the fans heard you.”

“We can deny everything.”

“You just shouted,  _ fuck, yes, Harry. _ There’s not much wiggle room.”

Louis shrugged as he sat up and pulled off his open shirt. Harry quickly fumbled at his own fly, freeing his cock and sighing with relief as he ran his hand over it. Louis leaned in to kiss Harry, who reciprocated for a few seconds before he pushed Louis back down onto the bed, straddled his hips and leaned over him, efficiently working over his own cock. 

“Gonna fuck you later,” Louis said to him quietly. “Show you how sorry I am for falling asleep.”

“Yeah?” Harry whispered, voice sounding strained. “Fuck, I can’t wait to have you inside me again.”

Louis sighed, digging his fingertips into the meat of Harry’s thighs. Harry was panting as he leaned further down to press a sloppy kiss to Louis’ mouth. He groaned, looking into Louis’ eyes as he came, pulsing hotly onto Louis’ ribs. 

“I love you,” Harry said. 

“Love you, too.”

-

Harry had left Louis to go and pack his own few things that he’d unpacked and Louis busied himself with another cup of what was now lukewarm coffee. The sky was becoming inky, an indication that the day was about to begin. Louis’ body felt like lead, heavy and tired, but he felt so, so sad the cruise was over. He changed into sweats, packing his suit (which probably had come on it somewhere) and then he was all ready to go.

Harry came back once he’d finished packing and the two of them quietly ate the pastries Harry had ordered earlier. Louis didn’t feel much like eating, but he forced himself to. The two of them gathered their things - slipping on sunglasses because the bright lights of the ship were not pleasant between the hangover and sleep deprivation - and met the others in the corridor. Delroy took one of Louis’ bags for him.

“Louis?” Delroy asked quietly. “Did you and Harry need me and Miro to stay in Barcelona with you? Or just one of us? I know we’re only contracted until today, but if you need-”

“No, Delroy.” Louis turned around to smile at him. “You get back to your family. We’ll be fine. As soon as Harry and I are in the car to our hotel, your job is done.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. And thank you for everything. You’ve been wonderful.”

The cruise director personally escorted them towards the exit to debark. 

“So, will everybody be awake now?” Harry asked.

“Yes,” the cruise director said. “We’ll start debarking the passengers as soon as you guys are off.”

“Can I make an announcement?”

Harry disappeared and a minute later, the PA system crackled to life.

_ “Hello everybody! This is Harry. Styles. I really just want to say thank you to every single one of you for such a wonderful and memorable experience. You’re all lovely. Take care, and… hope you see you onboard again soon, eh? Thank you, I love you.” _

_ - _

Louis was dead on his feet as they walked into the lobby of the hotel. He was so tired his eyes were crossing. The porter took their bags - thank God - but unfortunately, Louis still had to carry himself. He dragged himself up to the check in desk behind Harry, leaning on it to prop himself up as Harry checked them in. 

The porter took them up to their room and once he offloaded the bags, Harry politely dismissed him with a tip and Louis groaned loudly, throwing himself face first on the bed.

“Oh, Harry. I could sleep for 24 hours.”

“Okay, but before we go to sleep can we go for a walk? You know how much I love the gothic quarter, and I really think we need to have a serious chat before-”

“Are you fucking joking?” Louis deadpanned without even looking up. “Do what you want. I’m staying right here.”

“Of course I’m joking. I can barely stand.”

Louis scoffed and finally flipped over, trying in vain to kick his shoes off as Harry went to play with the air conditioning controls. Louis eventually relented and pulled himself to his feet, dropping all his clothes on the spot and sighing in relief. He shivered as the air con kicked in and he quickly shuffled back over, slipping into bed and closing his eyes.

“Harry, what are you doing? Get into bed.”

Harry slid in and Louis curled up against his back. He drifted off to sleep almost immediately and he couldn’t have been happier.

-

When he awoke, Louis could tell it was the early afternoon from the bright glare of the sun through a tiny crack in the blackout blinds. Harry was still asleep, snoring. Louis peeled away from him and went for a wee, returning a minute later and checking his phone.

He had a gushing text from Niall, telling him how much of an amazing time he’d had on the cruise. Nothing from Liam, except an Instagram notification, which turned out to be a selfie of him and Tootsie, captioned  _ Reunited! _

“Gross,” he murmured to himself. As he scrolled through Instagram, a text came in from Juliana.

**_Jules:_ ** _ Just to warn you, everybody is talking about you and Harry. _

Louis sighed, shrugging his shoulders slightly. Rumours and murmurs were the last thing on his mind right now. He was on dry land, in the comfiest, cosiest bed ever and Harry was naked and delicious next to him. Nothing else mattered.

Just as he was about to put his phone down, another text came through from his sister and he sighed loudly, before checking to see he hadn’t woken Harry.

**_Lots:_ ** _ Guess what’s trending for the first time in years?! LARRY STYLINSON!!!!!!!!! Hahahahaha!!!!! Ok but seriously, ring me asap xxxx _

Louis let out a quiet laugh and placed his phone on the side table. He wriggled under the duvet, his skin starting to goosepimple with cold from the air conditioning. He turned to face Harry, cuddling down and watching as Harry slept, quietly now.

He looked so peaceful, so relaxed. His nose was twitching every few seconds and Louis followed the impulse to lean forward and kiss it. He suddenly felt the urge to have Harry closer, as close as humanly possible, and so his slid a hand slowly around Harry’s waist and moved into his space, Harry’s body warmth seeping into Louis’ skin.

Harry stirred and Louis immediately felt bad.

“Sorry, love,” he whispered.

“Time is it?”

“Early afternoon.” Louis smiled as Harry blinked his eyes open, looking up at Louis blearily. “Sleep okay?”

“Mm, yeah. Not long enough though.”

“Well, we don’t want to sleep away our entire time here.” Louis ran his fingers through Harry’s hair. “You wanna get up in a bit? Go get some lunch?”

“Yeah. In a bit.” Harry pulled Louis even closer. “Then maybe get in the pool for a bit?”

“That sounds nice, yeah.”

“Then… back to bed to work up an appetite for dinner?” Harry beamed sleepily. 

Louis hummed in approval and they started to kiss, unhurried and without much heat behind it. Even so, Harry slipped a knee between Louis’ thighs and they pressed closer still.

“Baby?” Louis whispered. “What happens when we get home?”

“What do you mean?” Harry mumbled against Louis’ mouth. 

“Are we gonna… start from the beginning? Pick up where we left off? It’s just, it’s been a long time, and I… You do wanna be with me, yeah?”

“More than anything, Louis.”

“Okay. Okay, good.”

“How about this?” Harry gently nibbled on Louis’ bottom lip. “We’ll go on some dates, see how it goes. If everything seems to be going well, we can, like… expedite the process.”

Louis giggled softly. “Okay. Like you said before, no messing about.”

“No.” 

Louis nodded decisively and slipped out of bed. 

-

They had a quiet lunch in an old favourite restaurant of theirs before heading back to the hotel to change into their swimming things. It was easy, being with Harry again. He hadn’t realised but his life had been fragmented, cracked and incomplete without him. They had an easy banter going as they got back to their room, Harry teasing Louis for flirting with the porter.

“I was  _ not!” _ Louis protested. “I was just being polite. Well-mannered. Something  _ you _ could do well to observe.”

“Yeah, right.” Harry grinned as he pulled his clothes off. “I’m so rude, all of the time. Never polite to anybody.”

“You’re the worst! The waiter in the restaurant was definitely disappointed with your curt manner and meagre 25% tip.”

Harry just laughed, offering no reply as Louis stripped off and Harry openly stared at his cock.

“Come on, Harry. It’s not like you’ve never seen it before.”

“I love you,” was Harry’s only reply.

They made their way up to the roof, and Harry  _ oohed  _ and  _ ahhed _ as they stepped out by the pool. It was warm, but not hot, and the pool area was deserted. The boys claimed a couple of loungers and sat on the edge of the infinity pool, legs dangling in the cool water.

“This is the perfect ending to the perfect week,” Harry said happily.

“I’m not sure about perfect,” Louis replied, thinking back to Halloween night when Harry kissed him, all the while Louis still thinking Harry was seeing Christian. “But pretty wonderful.”

Harry lowered himself into the water, gasping slightly at the cold temperature. A barman came over just as Louis was about to join him. He ordered himself and Harry a drink each and slipped into the water.

“Holy shit!” Louis gasped. “Christ. That’s cold.”

“Wait it out, Lou. Wait it out.”

Louis held his breath and dunked his head under the water. The cold was a shock to the system but he felt better almost immediately. He leaned his back against the side of the pool and looked out at the view. 

“Nice to be back here, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.” Harry cut through the water and leaned against the opposite side. He leaned back, letting his legs float to the surface. “Remember that time we came here and we had that argument? I can’t even remember what it was about. Anyway, I came up here and spent, like, four hours in this pool.”

The barman silently placed their drinks on the table between their loungers and Louis thanked him. He put the bill on the table too, asking Louis to sign in his own time. Louis made his way over to Harry, leaning over the side of the pool, looking down over the edge.

“I vaguely remember. You came back all wrinkled, and I was drunk and thought it was hilarious.”

“Then we fucked in the shower.”

“Oh yeah! I don’t know how I managed to do that drunk.”

“Mm, we managed a lot of things when we were young.”

Louis giggled. That was true. They got up to all sorts, especially on tour. Sometimes, they had to grab their opportunities when and where they could. It made for some interesting memories.

“I have one vivid memory of sucking you off in Niall’s closet when we were in… um…” Louis frowned. “I forget where we were. But he was faffing in his room and you had to come quietly, which was the hardest thing ever for you.”

“Yeah! God, the risk of getting caught nearly sent me over the edge.” Harry blinked and grinned. “Actually, I think the only thing that could top the idea of getting caught would’ve been actually getting caught.”

“Harry!” Louis laughed. “I hope you’re not gonna start suggesting we invite Niall to watch us fuck. The blow job in the closet was as much as I’d like to involve Niall in our sex life.”

“I was sweating like  _ crazy,” _ Harry recalled. “I wiped my forehead on Niall’s t-shirt that he wore on stage later that night.”

“Why the fuck were we even in his closet?”

“No idea.”

Louis got out a few minutes later to have a drink and watch Harry swim up and down the length of the pool a few times. He took the opportunity to give Lottie a call, and she demanded to know exactly what happened on that cruise.

“We just reconnected, Lottie. Me and H are taking it slow, for now. Okay? When we get back home, I’ll take you for dinner and we’ll have a catch up.”

_ “You’re the worst brother ever. I had no idea something was going on.” _

“It wasn’t. Look, I have to go. Harry’s getting out the pool and we have some more reconnecting to do.”

_ “Ew. Bye.” _

Lottie hung up abruptly. 

“Rude,” Louis muttered as Harry pulled himself up the pool ladder with a huge splash. He walked over to Louis, dripping and looking quite the sight. He grinned, flopping down on his lounger.

“What time’s our flight tomorrow?”

“Like, 11pm. We’ll have the entire day.”

“I’m so torn between wanting to go out and about and wanting to just stay in our room all day.”

“We can do both, love. Plenty of time. Juliana booked us in for tomorrow night, too, so we don’t have to check out.”

Harry smirked, picking up his drink and daintily sipping from the straw. They took their time finishing their drinks and headed downstairs to their room, a slight anticipation thrumming under Louis’ skin.

“Pop the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign on the door, babe,” Harry said, disappearing into the bathroom.

Louis obliged, double locking the door for good measure. His swim shorts were still damp in places, and he wanted to get out of them but he didn’t want to change, and he thought it would be a bit weird so just stand there naked. He felt a bit nervous, which he knew was silly. But he’d wanted this moment to come again as soon as Harry walked away from him last July to build a relationship with Christian. He should’ve known Harry would always come back around. They were meant to be, Louis was sure of that now.

Harry emerged from the bathroom naked. Of course he did.

“Shorts off, Lou.”

“I’ve got to take my own clothes off?” Louis scoffed. “Romantic.”

“Off!”

Louis wriggled out of his damp shorts, struggling a bit where they stuck to his bum slightly. Harry folded his arms, watching as Louis bent down to pick them up, shake them out and drape them on a chair.

“Quite finished?” Harry pouted, walking towards Louis. “I almost feel like you’re delaying sex. On purpose.”

“Have you ever known me to do that? Harry, please.”

“True.” Harry placed his large hands on Louis’ soft hips, thumbs gently rubbing over his hip bones. “You look so good, you know. Sexiest I’ve ever seen you, I reckon.”

“No. I’ve got a bit podgy as I’ve aged.”

“I think you’re gorgeous. Reminds me of when we first met. Of course, you’ve always been perfect to me.”

For some reason, Louis couldn’t look him in the eye. Being open and loving was just so Harry. It was overwhelming to be on the other end of it again. Louis took a deep breath, staring at the swallow tattoos on Harry’s chest.

“I never stopped loving you. Ever since we met.” Louis finally looked into Harry’s eyes, trying to convey his heartfelt sincerity. “Not even for a second.”

Harry sighed, leaned in and kissed him. The electric feeling made Louis weak at the knees. Harry grew eager as he kissed Louis’ mouth, cheek, jaw, neck. Louis’ breath caught in his throat as Harry fell to his knees, but instead of doing what Louis was expecting, Harry tightened his grip at Louis’ hips and rested his forehead on his stomach. He was breathing heavily, and Louis frowned, slipping his fingers into Harry’s hair.

“Harry?”

Harry sighed, pursing his lips to kiss Louis’ lower stomach. He moved down further, kissing indulgently at the base of Louis’ hardening cock. It twitched against Harry’s cheek and Harry looked up, smiling at Louis as he opened his mouth and took him in. Louis tightened his grip in Harry’s hair, murmuring expletives. Harry released his hands from Louis’ hips, pushing them round to his bum cheeks and started to massage them, pulling them apart and then together, apart and together.

“Har- Harry…” Louis croaked out. “If you want me to fuck you…”

Harry hummed in agreement around Louis’ cock. Louis felt himself spurt a bit of precome into Harry’s mouth.

He huffed with tension before continuing. “You’re gonna have to stop because I’m gonna fucking come.”

Harry bobbed his head for a few more seconds before slowly, wetly pulling his pursed lips off of Louis’ shaft.

“You lost your stamina, Lou?” He wrapped a hand around Louis’ cock and started to pump slowly. 

“No,” Louis replied, as indignant as he could manage. “I just… you’re so fucking good at it.”

Harry let out a soft giggle as he stood up and took Louis’ hand. He pulled him the few steps to the bed and laid down on it, pulling Louis on top of him. The air con hit Louis’ back and made him shiver, but he knew it’d be a welcome relief in a matter of minutes. He slid his hand between their bodies and grabbed hold of Harry’s cock, enjoying the way his mouth fell open, moans gurgling from his throat. 

“That feel nice?”

“God,” Harry whispered. “Want you inside of me.”

Louis swallowed. “Shit, did we need to go and buy any lube, and stuff? I only brought that little packet with me that we used on the ship.”

“No,” Harry croaked. “I put it in that drawer next to my side of the bed.”

Louis released Harry’s cock and straddled him, leaning over to the drawer. “So. You brought it on the cruise with you, huh? Who were you expecting to have sex with?”

Harry levelled him with an unimpressed look. “Well, I was really hoping me and Liam would finally consummate our relationship.”

“Ugh.” Louis found the lube and box of condoms. It was a new box, plastic wrapping still on the box. “Oh, fucking hell.”

“Sorry,” Harry said, grinning sheepishly as Louis unwrapped the cellophane, pulled open the box and tore a condom from the strip. He dropped it to Harry’s chest, swung his leg off him and started to lube up his fingers.

“Turn over.”

Harry flipped over, laying his face upon the pillow and getting on his knees, sticking his arse in the air. Louis stroked the tip of his middle finger over Harry’s hole, circling it before pressing slightly to give a bit of pressure. Harry whined quietly and Louis smiled to himself. He worked him open, wishing he had the courage to take it slow, drag it out. He was too eager. He opened Harry up quickly, barely slipping a third finger in before Harry begged him to get going.

“Louis!” Harry whined. 

“You sure you’re ready?” Louis asked, staring at where his fingers were sliding in and out of Harry. “Because-”

“Please, please,  _ please.”  _ Harry huffed. “Please.”

“Alright, alright,” Louis said with a slight laugh. He stroked inside of Harry as he slowly pulled his fingers out, wiping his fingers on his own thigh. He found the condom, pulling it out of the foil packet and rolling it down his cock. He fumbled for the lube, drizzling some into his hand and dragging it down his shaft.

He guided himself to Harry’s hole, kneeling behind him as he started to push in slowly. There was just something about it that felt so familiar, and the way Harry’s body was pulling him in was dizzying. Not only that, but Harry was rocking backwards, trying to pull Louis in further. Louis knew he would hurt Harry if he went any faster so he dug his fingers firmly into Harry’s hips, trying to control his movements somewhat.

When Louis finally bottomed out, he started to move, slowly at first, before picking up speed slightly. Harry was whining pitifully and, knowing Harry better than he knew himself, Louis sped up further. Harry continued to whine as Louis made his movements less fluid and more snappy. Harry started to rock backwards again, slamming back into Louis as he thrust forward.

“Harry, babe?” Louis asked, panting. “You wanna flip over? Take control?”

Harry just whined in response. As difficult as it was, Louis reached down to hold the base of the condom in place and he pulled slowly out of Harry. Harry whined in complaint, but as Louis laid down next to him, Harry got to his knees to straddle Louis’ waist.

Louis looked up at him and, Christ. Harry’s face was blotchy and his bottom lip was nibbled red. His pupils were blown and he smiled down at Louis as he reached behind him to guide Louis’ cock back into him.

Harry sat down slowly, groaning with relief at every inch he took in. It didn’t take long until he was sitting flush against Louis’ hips, fluttering his eyes closed as he started to move back and forth. 

“Better, darling?”

Harry groaned in response, nodding his head as he built rhythm and speed. Louis lifted his hips the best he could, moving in time with Harry. He wrapped his hand around Harry’s bobbing, leaking cock and Harry let out an almighty whine that had Louis thinking about their poor neighbours.

“Oh, fuck.” Harry leaned backwards, arching his back as he ground his hips. “Lou, God. I-”

He broke off to growl deeply, shifting his weight forwards. He leaned down, pressing a sloppy kiss to Louis’ panting mouth. He placed his hands either side of Louis’ head and lifted himself halfway off his cock before slamming back down.

“Ah!” Louis cried out. “So fucking good, Haz.”

Harry built up a new rhythm, now, lifting off of Louis and slamming back down. Louis felt like he was about to lose his damn mind, forgetting to pump his hand, still wrapped around Harry’s cock. He managed to loosen his grip slightly, and Harry’s cock thrust through his open fist with every movement.

Everything happened at once in a heated, dizzying frenzy. Harry shouted in warning as he arched his back once again, just as Louis started to buck his hips. Harry spurted come onto his own stomach and ribs, and at the same time, Louis pulsed inside of Harry and filled the condom. Harry collapsed on top of Louis, panting loudly and murmuring incoherently.

“Wow.” Louis huffed out a breath. “Babe, that was incredible. We came at practically the exact same time.”

“Hm?” Harry’s mouth moved against Louis’ neck. “That’s because we’re so in tune.”

Harry finally climbed off of Louis, laying next to him. The air conditioning swiftly cooled the sweat that had grown between them, and Louis felt himself drifting off.

“Nap?”

Harry sighed. “Nap.”

-

The next morning, Louis woke up feeling more refreshed than he had in weeks. Having some leisure time was doing him good, along with good food, a good bed and good sex. After their nap yesterday, they’d gone to dinner and ended up in a bar until midnight, drinking and giggling together. It was now nearly ten o’clock and Harry was still asleep. This time tomorrow, Louis would be waking up back in England, knowing he had a meeting later that day. But for now, they still had the day together, away from reality.

He slipped out of bed and threw on a t-shirt and joggers. With one last glance to check that Harry was still sleeping - he was, and snoring to boot - he quietly tiptoed out of the room, grabbing his key card from the slot by the door and headed downstairs. There was a lovely little bakery a few doors down, and Louis chose a few bits to take back, savoury and sweet. Barcelona was practically the only place Harry was prepared to have a doughnut for breakfast. Louis paid, feeling smug at using basic Spanish to communicate with the woman behind the counter, and headed back.

It was a fairly warm day, considering they had now crossed over into November. The late morning sun hit Louis’ face and he squinted. He wondered if Harry was still asleep, and what he would think if he woke up and Louis was gone. Louis’ heart jolted painfully at the thought of Harry being panicked. He was sure he wouldn’t be.

When he got back into the room, Harry was just climbing back into bed.

“Hey,” Louis said softly, having worked himself up into a worry that he’d upset Harry. “Just went to get us breakfast.”

“I thought as much.” Harry yawned, pulling the covers over himself but swinging a leg out. “The air con went off when you took your key card.”

“Ooh.” Louis hurried back to the door and slotted it in. “Sorry, love.”

“It’s okay. Come back to bed. What did you buy me?”

Louis obeyed and slipped in next to Harry before unpacking the food and showing each item to an obnoxiously over-interested Harry. 

“...And a can of Fanta Lemon.”

“Wow!” Harry gasped, holding his cheeks in his hands. “The icing on the cake. The cherry on top! The-”

“Shut up!” Louis giggled. “Stop taking the piss. Did you want no food? Because that’s what you’re about to get.”

“Sorry, sorry.” Harry laughed, cheeks pink. “I’m actually genuinely excited.”

“You’re in a weird mood.”

“It’s probably denial.” Harry shrugged with a small smile that looked a little sad. “We’re leaving today.”

Louis sent a sad smile back before kissing Harry’s shoulder. Harry turned his head and their lips met in a soft, yet desperate embrace. They’d just found their way back to each other and now neither wanted to let go.

“Well, look. We touch down in London at, like, past midnight. Will you come back to mine? Sleep next to me tonight, then we can start reality together in the morning. What do you say?”

“Thank God, that’s what I say.”

-

They had sex twice before they even managed to leave the hotel room, but they finally went off for a walk around mid-afternoon. They had a late lunch and Harry finally got to emotionally reconnect with the Gothic quarter. They got an ice cream each and sat in front of the Cathedral, tourists buzzing around them.

“It’s nice, isn’t it?” Harry murmured in Louis’ ear. “The anonymity.”

Louis didn’t even realise, but this was the first time the two of them were free to walk around together. In the height of their fame, they would never go unrecognised if they were out together. Besides, they were never allowed. Today, nobody was here to tell them what to do. 

“Yeah. It is.”

Louis bought two very obnoxious souvenir t-shirts that he was planning on forcing Doris and Ernie to wear and, while Harry went off in search of a magnet for himself (he was being very sentimental about their little trip and it amused Louis endlessly) Louis slipped out of the tourist shop and into the shop next door.

Before long, they were back in their room, packing their last little bits. Louis’ heart felt heavy and he could tell from Harry’s silent, distant demeanour that his did, too.

“Haz?”

“Hm?” Harry looked up at Louis, relaxing his face and smiling slightly.

“I, uh… got you something.”

Harry raised his eyebrows. “Yeah?”

Louis pulled a little pouch from his pocket and fumbled with it. He held it out to Harry wordlessly, and Harry took it, looking closely at Louis. He pulled the pouch open and his eyes turned comically wide.

“Lou.”

Louis threw him a small smile, watching as Harry pulled out the coin bracelet. Harry stared at it, and Louis was wondering if he should read anything into the fact Harry wasn’t smiling. As if on cue, Harry broke into a huge smile.

“Thank you.”

“It’s, um…” Louis started to speak, either to fill the silence or out of nerves, he didn’t know. “Do you remember…?”

“Of course I do.” Harry stared at the bracelet and Louis was fairly pleased to note that he looked like he was about to shed a tear. “I love it, Louis.”

He slipped it onto his wrist and they shared a smile. Harry slowly closed the gap between them and kissed Louis, something about it making his dick twitch slightly. When Harry pulled away, Louis looked at his watch. He looked up to speak to Harry who was already smirking. That little shit. He knew exactly what Louis was thinking.

“I just,” Louis started, pausing to giggle. “There’s no point wasting time, right? We don’t have to leave yet.”

Harry just continued to smirk, pulling his t-shirt up over his head. Louis just watched as Harry stripped down to his boxers before stopping and cocking an eyebrow at Louis.

“Just me getting naked, is it?”

“Apparently.”

Harry narrowed his eyes, shaking his head slightly. He pulled Louis’ t-shirt over his head, discarding it before slipping his fingertips under the waistband of Louis’ joggers. He pulled them down and his mouth twitched when he noticed Louis hadn’t put on underwear.

“You know what I’ve missed the most about you?”

Louis grinned, looking smugly down to his quickly hardening cock.

“No…” Harry scolded. “Don’t be so… cocky.”

Louis rolled his eyes. “You’ve ruined it now.”

Harry pressed his body against Louis’, his clothed cock bumping against Louis’ lower stomach. He grabbed Louis arse cheeks in either hand, massaging indulgently.

“I missed this arse so much. I wanked loads thinking about it. I had vivid dreams about it.”

“I doubt that’s true, but I fully believed you bashed one out over it.”

Harry furrowed his brow, biting his bottom lip hard as he squeezed Louis’ bum and pulled him against his own body.

“Whenever I wanked it was over you. I even thought of you sometimes when I-” He cleared his throat, avoiding Louis’ gaze. “When I was with him.”

Louis couldn’t help the warm feeling spreading through him, making him feel loved and in love, but also making his cock twitch again.

“I can’t believe I thought that was okay,” Harry whispered. “I should’ve left him sooner.”

“Babe.” Louis nuzzled into Harry’s neck, pressing his lips against the flushed skin. “Don’t beat yourself up. You’re here. With me. Now.”

Harry nodded, continuing his massage of Louis’ arse. Louis let out a small moan before crying out in surprise as Harry slipped a finger between his cheeks and teased at his hole.

“Harry?” he said with a tone of teasing in his voice. “Do you want to fuck me? Is that what you’re trying to say?”

“No.” Harry shook his head. “I mean, yes. Not today.”

Harry pulled away, grabbed Louis’ hand and led him to the bed. Louis laid down, arousal coursing through him as Harry told him to turn over. He laid, hands under the pillow, cock nestled against the covers, left knee bent slightly. He looked over his shoulder and Harry was climbing onto the bed, staring at his arse. 

“Fuck,” Louis murmured as he realised what Harry was about to do. As Harry disappeared out of Louis’ vision, he laid his head down on the pillow, bracing himself.

Nothing could prepare him for the first tickle of Harry’s tongue on his hole. That was all it was at first, a soft, gentle tickle, before Harry pressed his wet tongue flat against Louis’ hole. Louis groaned into the pillow, hips writhing slightly.

“Missed this,” Harry said. Louis almost didn’t catch it, but he did. Somewhere in his mind, he thought it was interesting  that while Harry's other relationship was becoming unhappy and unsatisfying, he was thinking about how much he missed eating Louis’ arse.

He was kissing around Louis’ hole, now, and the teasing was maddening to Louis. He groaned in frustration, lifting his hips slightly. He heard Harry exhale heavily before opening his mouth to graze his teeth over the puckered flesh, the wet tip of his tongue joining the teasing. Louis heard a noise that sounded like Harry was sucking on a finger, then the unmistakable feeling of Harry’s thumb pushing at his rim.

It all became a jumble after that. A jumble of spit and fingers and thumbs, lips and tongue and teeth. Louis was panting into the pillow, the pleasure overtaking him so much it took him a couple of seconds to realise Harry had moved away from him.

“Wha- baby?” he cried pathetically. 

“Stand up, Lou.”

Louis looked over his shoulder at Harry, incredulous. He doubted he could move, let alone stand. Still, it was Harry, and so he tried. He shakily climbed to his feet, panting and trembling.

“Come with me.”

Louis was confused, staring at Harry, whose eyes were wild and face covered in his own spit. Louis followed him towards the door, and once they reached it, Harry pointed to it.

“Press against it. Face first, that’s it.”

The cool feeling of the door against Louis’ cheek and entire front was a shock to the system, particularly his neglected, leaking cock. Still, he stood there as instructed, legs slightly apart, palms flat on the door to steady him. Harry dropped to his knees behind Louis and continued his task. 

“Let me know…” Harry mumbled, sounding like his mouth was full. “When you’re close. Okay?”

“Kinda close, babe.”

“Mm.” Harry darted his tongue into Louis’ slightly open hole, before withdrawing it and he pushed both thumbs in, licking the rim languidly. He licked down to Louis’ taint and wetly slurped over his balls, and that was when Louis let out a loud whine.

“Babe, babe. I’m close.” Louis started to whine some more as he panted. “Gonna come.”

Harry withdrew his mouth, standing to his feet. He placed his hands on Louis’ cold, sweaty shoulders and pulled gently. “Couple of steps back.”

Louis had no idea what was going on and his body was twitching in an odd sort of way, his hips writhing ever so slightly. He did as he was told, and Harry slipped himself into the space between Louis and the door. He dropped to his knees, closed his eyes and placed his hands on Louis’ thighs.

“Come on my face.”

Louis just sort of gurgled. When they were younger, he was an absolute menace for coming on Harry’s face. It was probably one of his favourite things to do, coating Harry in his own come, watching his eyelashes stick together and his gorgeous, pink mouth drip. The memories that were flooding back were almost enough to tip Louis over the edge, but he grabbed hold of his cock and pumped three times before he started to come, just enough to coat Harry’s slightly open mouth. The tip of his cock hit Harry’s bottom lip and Harry pressed a kiss to it as he opened his eyes.

“Mm, wonderful.” Harry smiled up at him, as bright as the sun. Louis was trembling and took the opportunity to sink to his knees just in case he fell over. As weak as he was, he quickly reached over to pull Harry’s cock out of his boxers. An exhausted looking Harry just watched him as he pumped his fist, taking less than a minute to make Harry come over his hand and Harry’s lower stomach. Louis brought his hand up to his mouth and sucked the come from it.

“Well,” Louis said with a sigh. “Great way to end our trip.”

-

Louis folded his arms and stared stubbornly out of the window as they sped down the runway and lifted off the ground. He sighed loudly.

“Now, don’t throw a tantrum, Lou.”

“Shut up,” Louis mumbled. Harry slipped a hand onto Louis’ thigh as a comforting gesture, but slowly pushed it between his legs. He giggled when he finally got a smirk out of Louis. “Stop it.”

“A few hours and we’ll be back in bed. Naked.” Harry nudged Louis as he finally turned to look at him. “Seriously, Louis. I know you’re upset to go home and get back to reality, but nothing has to change with us. I want to see you as much as I can.”

Louis sighed. “I know. I just… it’s been really special.”

Harry smiled. “Yeah.”

“And I have to go to a meeting tomorrow. I’m really gonna need your help to stop the post-holiday blues from completely ruining me.”

“Of course. Hey,” Harry said. “Look, let’s spend tomorrow night apart, give us both some space. Then the next day, I’ll take you for dinner.”

Louis pouted. “Harry!” 

“If I spend too many nights in a row sleeping next to you I’ll stop being able to sleep without you there, and I don’t think I’m ready for that kind of dependence.” Harry nodded sagely to drive home his point before grinning. “The longer we spend together the harder it’ll be to walk away, and we have to walk away some time, even if it’s not for long.”

Louis rolled his eyes.

-

It was half past midnight when they landed, and Louis felt thick with tiredness. All he wanted to do was climb into his own bed, Harry next to him. They picked their bags up and baggage claim and headed towards arrivals.

“Juliana’s arranged us a car. It might just be an Addison Lee but as long as it’s got seatbelts and it gets us home…”

“Mm, can you carry me?” Harry whined. “Tired.”

“Me, too.” Louis sighed as they emerged into the arrivals hall. “Fuck! It’s cold.”

Louis stopped dead. He spotted Christian before Harry, and before Christian spotted them. He was eagerly scanning the crowd, and his eyes fell on Harry just as Louis nudged him. He was grinning inanely, flowers in hand. His eyes flickered to Louis and his face fell.

Harry’s face was contorting, a deep frown at first before scrunching in utter confusion. He glanced helplessly at Louis as Christian hurried over.

“Hi.”

It was… awkward. Louis chewed his bottom lip, not quite sure what to do.

“What are you doing here?” Harry finally asked flatly. “How did you know I was getting in now?”

Christian threw a confused glance at Louis before focusing back on Harry. 

“Well, I wanted to surprise you. I found out that you were supposed to be in yesterday morning so I came, but you weren’t here.”

“Yeah.”

“So, um. Well, you’re still on my Find my Friends app, so I can see where you are, and-”

“What?” Harry blinked quickly, tilting his head as if he didn’t understand. “Are you saying you tracked me, Christian?”

“I saw that you were at the airport in Barcelona a few hours ago so I thought I’d come down here and surprise you.”

“Christian, that is not okay.”

Christian looked a bit bewildered, glancing at Louis once again. “Can we… have this conversation in private, Haz?”

“No.” Harry’s face turned stony. “You had no right to track me. That’s sick.”

“I just wanted to see you, if we could just-”

“You know what?” Harry scoffed. “I can’t believe you. When we split up, I had to tell you three times to stop coming round to my house. You can’t do this, Christian. I’ve moved on, and you need to, too.”

Christian looked small and vulnerable, and Louis actually felt sorry for him. He felt Harry move closer to his side, Louis leaning in too so their shoulders were touching. 

“Chris, I’m really sorry this is hard for you,” Harry said, softening slightly. “But, honestly. You need to realise it’s over. I wasn’t happy, and you know I wasn’t.”

Louis reached for Harry’s hand and he took it gratefully, squeezing for reassurance. Christian’s eyes tracked the movement.

“Yeah. Okay,” Christian said dumbly.

“We’ve got a car waiting,” Harry said. “Look after yourself, Christian.”

Louis and Harry walked in silence, finding their car and climbing into the back. As soon as the doors were closed, Harry burst into tears. Louis was startled, reaching over to squeeze Harry’s knee.

“Oh, babe.”

Harry unbuckled his seatbelt and shuffled closer to Louis, dropping his head to his shoulder. He started to cry even harder, almost wailing. 

“I’m so sorry,” he whined through his sobs. “Not fair on you.”

“Hey,” Louis said softly. “Don’t worry about me.”

Louis held him close as Harry cried and cried, shushing him gently when he started to lose control of his breathing. He was trembling, and by the time he managed to quieten down to the occasional sob, his breath constantly catching, they were nearly back to Louis’.

“Louis, I’m really s-sorry,” Harry said again, pausing to sniff heavily. “That didn’t need to happen at all. I h-had no he was such a creep.”

“It’s okay.” Louis kissed the top of Harry’s head. “I felt sorry for him, really. I get the impression you hadn’t told him the whole truth about why you split up with him. Like, about… me?”

Harry sighed heavily. “No. I’m sorry.”

“Darling, stop apologising.”

“Sorry.” Harry rolled his eyes, giving Louis a tiny grin. “I just didn’t think he needed to know, at the time. I kind of thought it would crush him and it wasn’t necessary. I told him my heart was no longer in our relationship and that I wasn’t happy anymore, and I left it at that.” Harry raised his eyebrows. “Are you mad?”

“Of course not. You did what you had to do.”

They arrived at Louis’, and Harry clutched at his hand as they made their way inside. A sense of foreboding was tickling in Louis’ gut and instead of heading straight to bed, Louis led Harry into the living room. They dropped their bags by the door and sat down on the sofa.

“Harry…”

“No,” Harry whined quietly. “Louis…”

“What?”

Harry pouted, his bottom lip wobbling. He looked exhausted. Louis was tired too, but the crying and the stress had clearly finished Harry off. He seemed distressed by the fact Louis wanted to talk, even though Louis reckoned he didn’t have a clue what Louis was even about to say.

“Harry?” Louis sighed, taking his hand. “Are you alright?”

Harry nodded. “I’m fine.”

“Okay,” Louis replied, unconvinced. “I know you’re tired, but we need to talk about something.”

“No!” Harry thumped his head down on the back of the sofa.

“Sorry, love. But, look. I just kind of want to check that you’re actually ready to be back in a relationship.”

Harry’s eyes widened and he stared at Louis, incredulous. “What? Are you serious?”

“Harry,” Louis said with an attempt to sound placating. “You seem very, very upset about seeing Christian. And it’s fast, you know. You two haven’t been split up that long considering how long you were together. I just reckon you need to think about how you really feel and if you’re ready to jump into another relationship so quickly.”

Harry folded his arms, pouting. Louis knew he was probably overtired, too preoccupied in his own head to think this through logically. Louis knew he should have waited until the morning to have this conversation but he didn’t feel right getting into bed with Harry until he said it. It would’ve haunted him all night.

“I’m honestly fine.”

Louis wasn’t convinced, but it was enough, for now anyway. He stood to his feet and held his hand out to Harry.

“Come on. Let’s go to bed.”

Louis was hesitant but at Harry’s insistence he cuddled up to him, falling into a troubled, broken sleep.

-

Louis woke up feeling groggy. His bedroom was far too warm and to boot, his bed was lacking a Harry. He groaned, pulling himself out of bed and opening a window. He looked outside into the garden and watched for a few minutes as a pair of cats eyeballed each other, each trying to claim Louis’ garden as their territory. He frowned as they went for each other, making a terrible noise as they screeched. Louis moved away from the window and pulled on a pair of joggers, leaving the room to make his way downstairs. Had Harry left?

Of course he hadn’t. Louis quietly walked into the kitchen to see Harry sat on the floor, clutching a cup of tea, staring out of the floor-to-ceiling patio doors at the garden. He had the fleece throw from Louis’ living room wrapped around his shoulders tightly. Louis padded over, crouching behind him.

“You look like you’re making yourself at home.”

Harry jumped slightly, spilling a splash of tea onto the throw. Louis made a teasing tutting sound as he gently wrapped his arms around Harry from behind.

“Hope it’s okay I helped myself to stuff,” Harry said, placing his tea on the floor so he could clutch at Louis’ arms across his chest. 

“Of course it is.” Louis kissed Harry’s neck. “You alright?”

“Yeah.” Harry sighed. “I’m guessing you’re gonna want to talk.”

“Whenever you’re ready is fine, Harry.” Louis stood to his feet. “I’m gonna make some tea and toast. You want anything.”

Harry shook his head. “No thanks. Listen, if you’ve got time, I’d really like to talk this morning. No point in having it hanging over our heads.”

“Thank God we’re older and wiser these days, eh?” Louis smirked. Harry stood to his feet, picked up his cup of tea and walked over to stand opposite Louis, kitchen island between them. “I’ve definitely got time, love. Let me just make my breakfast and we’ll head into the living room.”

Louis made sure he entered the living room first, unsure of Harry’s intentions and so, not wanting to presume any seating arrangements. Louis sat on the sofa and Harry sat in the armchair, so Louis swung his legs up, stretching them out and facing Harry, who had crossed his legs under himself.

“First of all, Lou… I’m sorry I was a bit grumpy last night. I’m really grateful you care enough about my well-being to make sure I’m ready to be in a relationship so soon.”

“Haz, I’ve known you for a long time. I know you better than I know myself, in fact. You were overwhelmed and tired, I know.”

Harry gave him a small smile. “Yeah. I won’t lie to you, it was horrible to see Christian like that. And his face when he saw you…”

Louis winced. It wasn’t pleasant, even for him. It couldn’t have been easy at all for Harry to see his ex hurt like that. Whether he was over it or not.

“It wasn’t nice,” Harry continued. “But you need to know, my reaction last night wasn’t to do with any residual feelings at all. Not in the way you’re worried about. I was overtired and I think it just tipped me over the edge. Seeing him hurt was difficult, and I was just so angry that he’d fucking tracked me. I mean, that’s not okay, right? I didn’t overreact?”

“Not at all, babe. He had no right.”

“I was wondering if I should speak to him. What do you think? I kind of feel like I shouldn’t. Maybe I should just cut all ties and leave him to get on with it. Oh, and find a way to turn off whatever is letting him track me.”

“I think giving him space is for the best,” Louis agreed. 

“Lou, I promise I’m not hung up on him, or anything. And me and Christian had a good relationship, great even. But it lacked something, and I knew my heart wasn’t in it because my heart has always been with you.”

Louis couldn’t help the smile that crept onto his face. Harry stood to his feet, lifting Louis’ legs and sitting on the sofa, placing them on his lap.

“Okay,” Louis said quietly.

“I didn’t plan it, you know.” Harry grinned. “Confronting my feelings when we were on the ship. I didn’t have a plan at all, really. I kind of just… had faith we’d find our way back to each other.”

Louis snorted. “That’s asking a lot of fate, isn’t it?”

Harry just shrugged. “It all worked out in the end though, didn’t it?”

Louis smiled, wide and bright. “Yeah. It did.”

A few hours later, Louis headed off to his meeting and when he returned, Harry was still there. He was making dinner for them both and Louis really felt like he’d landed on his feet. A little over a week ago, he was home alone, sitting in this kitchen, dreading the cruise. 

Being back with Harry was making him feel young again. The rush he felt reminded him of being eighteen, a sweet sixteen year old Harry stealing glances at him constantly. Both of them finding any excuse to touch just for the sake of touching. Not being able to tone it down in front of cameras until they were forced to.

They got through that, and they came out the other side. Maybe they were battered and bruised from the experience and maybe that contributed to the deterioration of their relationship, but nothing else mattered now that they were back on track. 

“You reckon we should make an announcement?” Harry asked, fingers lightly scratching at Louis’ scalp as they laid in front of the TV. “Put the fans out of their misery?”

“Absolutely not.” Louis snorted. “We’ll go out together a few times and make them sweat.”

“Ooh, you’re mean.”

Louis turned his head to look up at Harry. “But that is why you love me.”

“Yeah.” Harry beamed like he couldn’t help himself. “It is.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading <3 <3 <3 If you enjoyed, please [reblog the Tumblr post!](https://catfishau.tumblr.com/post/171861871826/dinosaursmate-drifting-weightless-by)


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